Treatment of cardiovascular, neurodegenerative and autoimmune diseases, repair of damaged tissues, anti-cancer therapy, mitigation of obesity-related risks, including the development of metabolic syndrome and type 2 diabetes, and increased sports performance, faster recovery after strenuous training or higher yields in agriculture. All these words and phrases have one common link, namely molecular hydrogen.
Yes, hydrogen! The smallest, simplest and most abundant element in the universe, it is most often talked about in the scientific community as the fuel of the future or in connection with nuclear fusion. In contrast, it has not received much attention in the biological and biochemical fields and has been considered an inert molecule with minimal effects on living organisms. A breakthrough came in 2007 when specific antioxidant effects were discovered in tissue lines. Intensive research has also begun in these scientific fields, and dozens and hundreds of scientific articles have been published attributing antioxidant, antiapoptotic and anti-inflammatory effects to molecular hydrogen, which can be used in the prevention and treatment of many diseases. It has also been found to have a positive effect on mitochondrial function and may be involved in several signalling pathways in cells. However, its exact mechanism of action has not yet been described and many related things are still waiting to be discovered.
The study of the biological effects of molecular hydrogen is a relatively new topic in our laboratory, on which we are collaborating with Associate Professor Michal Botek, PhD from the Faculty of Physical Education of Palacký University in Olomouc. While proffesor Botek administers molecular hydrogen in the form of hydrogenated water directly to athletes, in whom he observes, for example, an increase in their performance under given conditions, in our laboratory, we focus on the study of the effect of water enriched with molecular hydrogen on human tissue cultures, in which we try to detect possible changes in cell physiology and metabolism. Currently, we are particularly interested in the effect on cellular levels of reactive oxygen species (ROS), the overall cellular antioxidant capacity or the expression of the transcription factor Nrf2, which is mainly responsible for increasing the activity of antioxidant mechanisms in cells.