Detection and structural analysis of lipid-derived radicals in vitro and in vivo

Abstract

Lipids can be oxidized by reactive oxygen species, resulting in lipid peroxidation and the formation of reactive metabolites such as lipid-derived electrophiles. These products have been reported to induce inflammation, angiogenesis, and ferroptosis. Lipid peroxidation can produce many different products, each of which performs a different function, and which can be challenging to detect in vivo. The initial products of lipid oxidation are lipid-derived radicals, which can cause extensive chain reactions leading to lipid peroxidation. Hence, the ability to detect lipid radicals may provide information about this important class of molecules and the mechanism by which they cause cellular and tissue damage in a wide range of oxidative conditions. In this review, we report recent scientific advances in the detection of lipid-derived radicals in vitro and in cultured cells. We also introduce the possibility of visualization and structural analysis of lipid-derived radicals generated not only in in cells but also in animal tissue samples from oxidative disease models, using fluorescence-based lipid radicals’ detection probes. We anticipate that the various innovative techniques summarized in this paper will be applied and further developed to clarify the role of lipid peroxidation in the pathogenesis of oxidative stress-associated diseases.

Keywords:

• Lipid radicals
• spin trapping
• fluorescence probe
• oxidative disease
• ferroptosis

Disclosure statement

The authors declare no competing financial interests.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported in part by the AMED-CREST grant (JP20gm0910013 to K.Y.), and JSPS KAKENHI grants (18K14884 to Y.M., 17H03977, 18K19405 and 20H00493 to K.Y.).