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The confounding effect of lipid concentration in measures of oxidative stress

Oxidative stress affects may exert strong effects on individual health and fitness. Lipid peroxidation products are widely used as markers of oxidative damage in the organism. We investigated the relationship between circulating lipids and two common markers of oxidative damage (plasma levels of malondialdehyde and hydroperoxides; the latter estimated from the d-ROMs assay kit). The study was performed on several bird species belonging to different taxonomic groups and with different diets. In all cases, plasma triglyceride levels positively and significantly correlated with lipid peroxidation markers, explaining between 8% and 34% of their variability. These results indicate that lipid peroxidation markers levels must be statistically controlled for the lipid concentration in the sample in order to avoid undesirable biases and wrong interpretations.

The results of this research have been published in the journal Physiological and Biochemical Zoology, within an article signed by Lorenzo Pérez-Rodríguez, Ana A. Romero-Haro, Audrey Sternalski, Jaime Muriel, Francois Mougeot, Diego Gil y Carlos Alonso-Álvarez, entitled “Measuring oxidative stress: the confounding effect of lipid concentration in measures of lipid peroxidation ". The PDF is available on the left-side panel of this page.

 

 

Pictures

  • Rotor of A25 autoanalyzer (Photo: Lorenzo Pérez-Rodríguez)
  • Blood sampling of a male zebra finch (Photo: Lorenzo Pérez-Rodríguez)
  • Jaime processing blood samples (Photo: Lorenzo Pérez-Rodríguez)
  • Blood sampling a starling nestling (Photo: Lorenzo Pérez-Rodríguez)