Abstract

The field of nutrition research evolved over the last two and a half centuries from studying the basics of nutritional physiology (e.g. nutrient digestion) to a highly advanced discipline employing state-of-the-art techniques to elucidate the role of dietary compounds in the maintenance of health and prevention of disease. In this context, nutrigenomics is a rapidly growing field making use of molecular biology methodologies, such as microarray technology, to study how specific nutrients or diets affect gene expression. The mode of operation of DNA microarray technology and its applications in antioxidant research are discussed, and recent publications reporting the use of DNA microarrays to investigate various aspects of the biological activities of oxidants and antioxidants are reviewed.

Keywords: antioxidants, ascorbic acid, gene array, genomics, metabolomics, nutrigenetics, nutrigenomics, oxidants, oxidative stress, proteomics, tocopherol, transcriptomics