ABSTRACT
Oxidant stress has been implicated in a growing number of age-related pathologies, including cardiovascular disease (Brouilette et al., 2003; Samani et al., 2001), neurodegeneration (Shiels and Davies, 2003), transplant dysfunction (Joosten et al., 2003; Lamb et al., 2006; Shiels and Jardine, 2003), reduced immune function, psychological disorders (Epel et al., 2004) and mortality associated with chronic kidney disease (Carrero et al., 2008). Determining suitable characteristics and measuring the efficacy of antioxidants designed to tackle clinically such pathologies is not straightforward. There are still equivocal reports as to the exact nature of how cells respond to acute oxidant challenge. Central to this is how telomere biology is linked to such damage responses.
