ReviewFree radical biology & medicine2010
Hydroethidine- and MitoSOX-derived red fluorescence is not a reliable indicator of intracellular superoxide formation: another inconvenient truth.
Review in Free radical biology & medicine, 2010. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 249 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
249 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 500 citations in OpenAlex.
- Recent Progress in Traditional Chinese Medicines and Their Mechanism in the Treatment of Allergic Rhinitis.Journal of healthcare engineering · 2022Pooled it
- Practical guidelines for rigor and reproducibility in preclinical and clinical studies on cardioprotection.Basic research in cardiology · 2018Guideline
- Assessment of myeloperoxidase activity by the conversion of hydroethidine to 2-chloroethidium.The Journal of biological chemistry · 2014Trial
- Redox regulation of telomerase and telomeres in cancer: a critical appraisal of exposure, causality and molecular directness.Molecular biology reports · 2026Review
- Beyond DCFH-DA: A Critical Review of Hydrogen Peroxide and Superoxide Detection Strategies in Mammalian Living Systems (2015-2026).International journal of molecular sciences · 2026Review
- Gut microbiota-derived succinate links proteostasis collapse to α-synuclein pathology and aging.iScience · 2026Article
- A mitochondrial ROS-dependent antiviral response promotes β cell resilience and is diminished in donors with type 1 diabetes.Science translational medicine · 2026Article
- Pathophysiology of reactive oxygen species (ROS).Archives of toxicology · 2026Review
- Neuroprotective Effect of Fresh Gac Fruit Parts Against β-Amyloid-Induced Toxicity and Its Influence on Synaptic Gene Expression in HT-22 Cell Model.Molecules (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Excitotoxic neuronal death requires superoxide entry into neurons through volume-regulated anion channels.Science advances · 2025Article
- Could Individual Variability in Resistance to Cryopreservation ("Freezability") Serve as a Biomarker Reflecting Boar Fertility?Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2025Article
- Diverse Fluorescent Probe Concepts for Detection and Monitoring of Reactive Oxygen Species.Chemistry, an Asian journal · 2025Review
- IFN-α Induces Heterogenous ROS Production in Human β-Cells.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Modulation of the thiol redox proteome by sugarcane ash-derived silica nanoparticles: insights into chronic kidney disease of unknown etiology.Particle and fibre toxicology · 2025Article
- Electron paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy for analysis of free radicals in zebrafish.PloS one · 2025Article
- Evaluation of Oxidative Stress in Mammalian Spermatozoa.Methods in molecular biology (Clifton, N.J.) · 2025Article
- Mapping the oxidative landscape in cystic fibrosis: methodological frontiers and application.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2025Review
- The role of short-chain fatty acids in cancer prevention and cancer treatment.Archives of biochemistry and biophysics · 2024Review
- The Switching of the Type of a ROS Signal from Mitochondria: The Role of Respiratory Substrates and Permeability Transition.Antioxidants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Enhancing Cardiomyocyte Resilience to Ischemia-Reperfusion Injury: The Therapeutic Potential of an Indole-Peptide-Tempo Conjugate (IPTC).ACS omega · 2024Article
189 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Hydroethidine (HE; or dihydroethidium) is the most popular fluorogenic probe used for detecting intracellular superoxide radical anion. The reaction between superoxide and HE generates a highly specific red fluorescent product, 2-hydroxyethidium (2-OH-E(+)). In biological systems, another red fluorescent product, ethidium, is also formed, usually at a much higher concentration than 2-OH-E(+). In this article, we review the methods to selectively detect the superoxide-specific product (2-OH-E(+)) and the factors affecting its levels in cellular and biological systems. The most important conclusion of this review is that it is nearly impossible to assess the intracellular levels of the superoxide-specific product, 2-OH-E(+), using confocal microscopy or other fluorescence-based microscopic assays and that it is essential to measure by HPLC the intracellular HE and other oxidation products of HE, in addition to 2-OH-E(+), to fully understand the origin of red fluorescence. The chemical reactivity of mitochondria-targeted hydroethidine (Mito-HE, MitoSOX red) with superoxide is similar to the reactivity of HE with superoxide, and therefore, all of the limitations attributed to the HE assay are applicable to Mito-HE (or MitoSOX) as well.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.