Recent advances in hydrogen research as a therapeutic medical gas

Abstract

Recent basic and clinical research has revealed that hydrogen is an important physiological regulatory factor with antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and anti-apoptotic protective effects on cells and organs. Therapeutic hydrogen has been applied by different delivery methods including straightforward inhalation, drinking hydrogen dissolved in water and injection with hydrogen-saturated saline. This review summarizes currently available data regarding the protective role of hydrogen, provides an outline of recent advances in research on the use of hydrogen as a therapeutic medical gas in diverse models of disease and discusses the feasibility of hydrogen as a therapeutic strategy. It is not an overstatement to say that hydrogen's impact on therapeutic and preventive medicine could be enormous in the future.

Keywords::

• Molecular hydrogen
• radical oxygen species
• antioxidant therapy

Acknowledgement

We thank Dr Shannon L. Wyszomierski for editing the manuscript.

Declaration of interest: The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.

This paper was first published online on Early Online on 30 June 2010.