Current Research: Oxidative Stress
As a normal part of metabolism, cells produce a small amount of "free radicals." These free radicals can damage every part of a cell, including its DNA, proteins and structure, through a process called "oxidative stress." Healthy cells can manage a small amount of oxidative stress, but if too many free radicals are produced, the oxidative stress can kill the cell.
Our research in experimental and clinical diabetes indicates that oxidative stress is a unifying mechanism underlying nerve and kidney damage in diabetes, and plays an important role in ALS. Treatment strategies halting oxidative stress decrease cell injury and, in many cases, restore function in cell culture and animal models of diabetic complications.
Peripheral Nerve Society Meeting July 15, 2007
Protective drugs identified in a high throughput screen for compounds
that prevent glucose-induced mitochondrial oxidative stress in a cell
culture model of diabetic neuropathy.
