Direct and indirect measurements of oxygen radicals

Abstract

Instead of covering the available detection methods in detail it is attempted to highlight the ambiguities inherent in oxygen radical detection under in vivo conditions. Due to physicochemical properties of the oxygen molecule, all organic matter is bound to autoxidize. From this it follows that a certain 'background' level of oxygen radical production will always be present and that it may be difficult to differentiate between inherent and induced oxygen radical production. Radicals by their very nature react 'unspecifically'. This infers that it is difficult to identify them unequivocally. The most common methods for oxygen radical detection are briefly mentioned.