background & aim: glycyrrhiza l. (fabaceae) consists of perennial herbs grow in sandy soils with hard lightness. three species of the genus grow in iran, among them g. glabra l. has the widest distribution. it is well known in english as licorice and the root extract includes flavonoids and glycyrrhizin are used widely in medicine, food industry, tobacco products and other industries. liqui...

sperm is particularly susceptible to reactive oxygen species (ros) during critical phases of spermiogenesis. however, the level of seminal ros is restricted by seminal antioxidants which have beneficial effects on sperm parameters and developmental potentials. mitochondria and sperm plasma membrane are two major sites of ros generation in sperm cells. besides, leukocytes including polymer phonu...

collection of multiple processes that increase the chronological age of an organism leading to death is defined as aging, and even though important, it is poorly understood. recent research has shown that aging is due to biochemical and genetic changes, in interaction with environmental effects, including diet and nutrition. most knowledge on aging is based on ge­netic model system, but its mol...

infertility is one of the most stressful conditions amongst married couples. male factor infertility is implicated in almost half of these cases. recent advances in the field of reproductive medicine have focused the attention of many researchers to consider reactive oxygen species (ros) as one of the mediators of infertility causing sperm dysfunction. although, ros is involved in many physiolo...

Mitochondrial reactive oxygen species (ROS) have emerged as an important mechanism of disease and redox signaling in the cardiovascular system. Under basal or pathological conditions, electron leakage for ROS production is primarily mediated by the electron transport chain and the proton motive force consisting of a membrane potential (ΔΨ) and a proton gradient (ΔpH). Several factors controllin...

Fascination by the mitochondria, “the colonial posterity of migrant prokaryocytes, probably primitive bacteria that swam into ancestral precursors of our eukaryotic cells and stayed there,”1 stems from the above-mentioned nebulous endosymbiotic theory of their origin, as well as from the growing realization of a very special role that they play in the pathogenesis of diverse diseases. These org...

The mitochondrial respiratory chain is a major source of reactive oxygen species (ROS) under pathological conditions including myocardial ischemia and reperfusion. Limitation of electron transport by the inhibitor rotenone immediately before ischemia decreases the production of ROS in cardiac myocytes and reduces damage to mitochondria. We asked if ROS generation by intact mitochondria during t...

The production of ROS (reactive oxygen species) by mammalian mitochondria is important because it underlies oxidative damage in many pathologies and contributes to retrograde redox signalling from the organelle to the cytosol and nucleus. Superoxide (O2(*-)) is the proximal mitochondrial ROS, and in the present review I outline the principles that govern O2(*-) production within the matrix of m...