Myocardial reperfusion injury and oxidative stress: Therapeutic opportunities

Figure 1 Generation of reactive oxygen species and mobilization of iron after myocardial reperfusion. There is a massive production of reactive oxygen species and iron mobilization by the different cellular types of the myocardial tissue. The iron reacts with superoxide anion to produce hydroxyl radical by the Fenton reaction. Inside cardiomyocyte, there is intracellular production of reactive oxygen species through NADPH oxidase, eNOS uncoupled, xanthine oxidase and mitochondrion. NOX: NADPH oxidase; ROS: Reactive oxygen species; Fe: Iron; eNOS: Endothelial nieric oxide synthases.