Analysis of Aliphatic Amino Acid Alcohols in Oxidized Proteins

Radical-mediated protein oxidation was first studied at the beginning of the 20th century by Henry Dakin ([1 ]; reviewed in ref. 2 ), but it is only recently that the use of the products of these reactions as specific markers of oxidative damage in in vivo situations has been established. Generic markers of protein oxidation such as protein carbonyls have been used longer as indices of protein oxidation in vivo (3 ) (reviewed recently in ref. 4 , but it is unclear whether the measurement of such materials accurately reflects damage to proteins (as opposed to oxidation of, for example, lipids or sugars that are, or become, bound to proteins). Our purpose here is to discuss methods for analysis of alcohols of aliphatic amino acids in proteins, since there are few pathways known to generate these molecules other than oxygen radicals such as hydroxyl radicals/Fenton systems (see discussion in ref. 5, 6).