Results of the study of the pathophysiological effects of dysregulation of free-radical processes: deadlock or a new impulse?

The review presents the results of the authors' work of many years and the data of foreign studies, indicating the importance of free radical processes in etiology and pathogenesis of atherosclerosis. The justification of the idea that oxidative stress in atherosclerosis develops more often during disorders of carbohydrate metabolism, contributing to emergence of carbonyl stress in diabetes. It is hypothesized that there is a single molecular mechanism of primary pro-atherogenic injuries of vessel walls in atherosclerosis and diabetes, which enhances the formation of carbonyl-modified low-density lipoproteins, accumulating in the foam cells. The results of recent studies indicate that oxidatively modified LDL involved not only the primary injury to the vessel walls, but also provoked the development of endothelial dysfunction, so that once again raises the issue of the need for the use of antioxidants to prevent injuries in vascular walls. It can be assumed that the result of years of intensive research of free radical process mechanisms in atherosclerosis and diabetes will be the development of new drugs for the combined therapy of these diseases that can be disposed not only reactive oxygen species and organic free radicals and reactive carbonyls, which are clearly playing an important role in the development of pro-atherogenic injuries.