Reactive oxygen species and hydrogen therapy

Abstract

Recently, it has become clear that damage caused by reactive oxygen species, generally referred as “oxidative stress”, is involved in various diseases. In the cell, reactive oxygen species are generated during normal physiological use of molecular oxygen. On the other hand, several lines of research have demonstrated that molecular hydrogen, previously considered to be inert and non-functional in living organisms, reacts with specific reactive oxygen species such as hydroxyl radicals and peroxynitrite. In this review, we will give an overview of the current literature on reactive oxygen species and their interaction with hydrogen as a starting point to discuss hydrogen therapy.