Increased oxidative stress has been strongly linked to conditions like atherosclerosis and age-related macular degeneration (AMD) -- the most common cause of blindness among the elderly in western societies. Oxidative stress is the process in which proteins, lipids and DNA damaged by oxygen free radicals and related cellular waste accumulate, prompting an inflammatory response from the body's innate immune system that results in chronic disease.rtant insights into how the innate immune system responds to oxidative stress and might be exploited to prevent and treat AMD and other chronic inflammatory diseases.
Specifically, Binder, Joseph L. Witztum, professor of medicine at UC San Diego, and colleagues in Austria, Germany, England and Maryland discovered that when lipids (fats) in cell membranes degrade through oxidative stress, they produce a number of reactive products, including a compound called malondialdehyde (MDA), which in turn modifies other molecules to create novel oxidation-specific epitopes, the part of antigens that draws the attention and inflammatory response of the innate immune system.
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