Normal Body Physiology Essay

Normal body physiology plays a key role in maintain a balance between production of ROS and body’s antioxidant defense system and any sort of imbalance altering this dynamic system leads to onset of metabolic disorder with cognitive dysfunction (Smith et al., 2009). Hydrogen peroxide, hydroxyl radical, superoxide ion and singlet oxygen are such reactive species which are abundantly produced in cellular respiration cycles and have very short half-life (Li et al., 2013) The coexistence of obesity significantly contributes to the production of excess free radicals and ROS involved in diabetes and diabetic complications (Amin et al., 2011).

Diabetic patients have more oxidative cellular environment as compared to healthy ones (Moreira et al., 2007; Fu et al., 2009). Therefore, diabetes is usually accompanied by increased production of free radicals or impaired antioxidant defenses resulting in increased oxidative stress contributing to the development and

Hyperglycemic condition has proportionality with sorbitol production which reduces NADPH, a cofactor for GSH production and hence decreases antioxidant levels in the body (Nunomura et al., 2001; Devi et al., 2006). Hyperglycemia also leads to flux of glucose or FFA into blood which turns hexosamine pathway on (Marshall et al., 1991) for further ROS production (Schleicher et al., 2000) Elevated levels of FFA have an adverse effect on mitochondrial functioning and uncouple oxidative phosphorylation to contribute in ROS production (Wojtczak et al., 1993; Bakker et al., 2000). ROS production worsens the status of insulin signaling and stress pathways which lead to further ROS production to turn a vicious cycle on. High polyunsaturated fatty acid proportion with GSH content leave neurons vulnerable and make them prone to free radical attack (Hazel et al., 1990). A noticeable