Albumin and transferrin are antioxidants that prevent lipoperoxidation in vitro

in humans, the antioxidant capacity assessment (ca) represents the sum of all the antioxidants contained in the biological sample, so the results can not be discussed according to the type of molecule responsible for ca. for this reason, we evaluated the in vitro ca protein, vitamins and enzymes in a mixture of polyun-saturated fatty acids undergo a fenton reaction, where were tested physiological concentrations β-carotene, γ and α tocopherol, ascorbic acid, albumin, transferrin, superoxide dismutase, catalase, glutathione and glutathione peroxidase. we quantified the amount of tbars (thiobarbituric acid reactive substances) produced in each reaction which was compared with a control sample. tocopherols α and γ decreased tbars 24.9 ± 3.0% and 23.0 ± 2.2% respectively, p<0.01; the apo-transferrin show the best ca (-71.5 ± 1.7% p <0.01) followed by albumin (-52.3 ± 1.7%, p <0.01), the antioxidant effect observed in the albumin affected its structure, identifying in agarose gel low molecular weight peptides. the results indicate that as tocopherols, albumin and transferrin are antioxidants prevent in vitro oxidation of polyunsaturated fatty acid exposed to a fenton reaction.