NIS LABS
Contract Research Laboratory
Contract Research Laboratory
NIS Labs has established a new method for evaluating the antioxidant potential of natural products based on the concept that many such antioxidant products are only of biological relevance if they are able to penetrate living cells.
The advantage of choosing the erythrocyte (red blood cell) for the assay is that this cell type does not perform cellular signaling, undergo apoptosis, or produce reactive oxygen species, whereas all other cell types used in cell-based assays can. The key aspect of the assay is that the erythrocyte is inert, i.e. does not contribute to oxidative damage by its cellular functions, and that the assay specifically measures those antioxidants capable of entering the cell. The erythrocyte can be seen as a simple model for the ability of a product to cross a cell membrane, thereby representing one major aspect of bioavailability.