Hydrogen and oxidative stress injury——from an inert gas to a medical gas

Oxidative stress is intensive cellular oxidation caused by redundant reactive oxygen species(ROS) or free rad icals.RedundantROS causes DNA fracture,lipid peroxidation and protein inactivation,thus lead ing to se-vere cell damage.Recent stud ies have shown that hydrogen is a good anti-oxidant.It selectively reduces the hy-droxyl rad ical,the most cytotoxic of ROS;however,it does not react with other ROS,which play physiological roles.As a result,it could protect tissues against oxidative stress injuries,such as ischemia/reperfusion injury of the heart,liver and intestine,cisplatin nephrotoxicity,sepsis and colon inflammation.As a medical gas,hydrogen may have a prospect for far-reaching clinical application.