Open AccessNew considerations on hormetic response against oxidative stress
Author(s) -
Luna–López Armando,
GonzálezPuertos Viridiana Y.,
LópezDiazguerrero Norma E.,
Königsberg Mina
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
journal of cell communication and signaling
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.329
H-Index - 44
eISSN - 1873-961X
pISSN - 1873-9601
DOI - 10.1007/s12079-014-0248-4
Subject(s) - hormesis , organism , longevity , stressor , life span , adaptive response , oxidative stress , medicine , bioinformatics , biology , toxicology , neuroscience , gerontology , genetics , endocrinology
In order to survive living organisms have developed multiple mechanisms to deal with tough environmental conditions. Hormesis is defined as a process in which exposure to a low dose of a chemical agent or environmental factor that is damaging at higher doses induces an adaptive beneficial effect on the cell or organism. In this paper, we examine several ideas that might be taken into consideration before using hormesis as a therapeutic tool to improve health and life span, and hopefully will open the discussion for new and interesting debates regard hormesis. The first one is to understand that the same stressor or inductor can activate different pathways in a parallel or dual response, which might lead to diverse outcomes. Another idea is related to the mechanisms involved in activating Nrf2, which might be different and have diverse hormetic effects. Last, we discuss mild oxidative stress in association to low‐grade chronic inflammation as a stimulating avenue to be explored and the unexpected effects proposed by the obesity paradox theory. All the previous might help to clarify the reasons why centenarians are able to reach the extreme limits of human life span, which could probably be related to the way they deal with homeostasis maintenance, providing an opportunity for hormesis to intervene significantly.