Enhanced Urinary Excretion of Lipid Metabolites Following Exposure to Structurally Diverse Toxicants: A Unique Experimental Model for the Assessment of Oxidative Stress

Structurally diverse toxicants in the environment are responsible for the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in biological systems. The accumulation of ROS results in oxidative stress and causes damage to macromolecules such as DNA, proteins, lipids and carbohydrates. Consequently, exposure to environmental oxidants increases the occurrence of a number of diseases as well as reproductive and developmental defects. One of the hallmarks of oxidant-induced oxidative stress is the production of fat metabolites caused by lipid peroxidation. Lipid metabolites such as acetaldehyde, acetone, formaldehyde and malondialdehyde can be quantified in biological fluids including serum and urine using high-performance liquid chromatography, gas chromatography and/or mass spectrometry. In this regard, the simultaneous detection of lipid metabolites using these procedures may provide a powerful tool for the rapid, accurate, reproducible and noninvasive assessment of oxidative stress induced by environmental exposure to toxicants. This chapter reviews the application of these methodologies in the evaluation of temporal effects of toxicant exposure on lipid peroxidation in a variety of experimental systems.