Coping With Repeated Ischemia and Reperfusion: Physiology of Free Radicals in Diving Birds and Mammals

摘要

The specific mechanisms involved in protecting marine bird and mammal tissues from generation of free radicals and their deleterious effects are not known and are the subject of this research. The short-term objectives of this study are to analyze the rate of production of superoxide radical as an index of synthesis of free radicals, in tissues from marine birds and mammals; to examine the degree of lipid peroxidation as an index of free radical-induced damage, in tissues from marine birds and mammals; and to do a selective analysis of the antioxidant defenses which may endow marine birds and mammals with the tolerance to repeated cycles of ischemia/reperfusion associated to diving.