TBARS Background

2-ThioBarbituric Acid Reactive Substances (TBARS) are naturally present in biological specimens and include hydroperoxides and aldehydes which increase in concentration as a response to oxidative stress.  TBARS assay values are usually reported in malonaldehyde (MDA) equivalents, a compound that results from the decomposition of polyunsaturated fatty acid lipid peroxides.  The TBARS assay is a well recognized, established method for quantifying these lipid peroxides.

However, because typical TBARS assays utilize high temperatures in the presence of strong acids, TBA has been found to react with many interfering compounds, which has been a long standing criticism of this method.  Non-specific interferences that contribute to overall absorbance measurements plague the traditional TBARS assay by yielding artificially high results when measuring MDA concentrations.

Oxford Biomedical Research has developed an Enhanced TBARS Assay that shortens the reaction time and uses a proprietary polyacid, greatly reducing the non-specific interfering signals.  This results in a more accurate and reliable MDA measurment.

Advantages

• TBARS assay uses a polyacid to enhance MDA measurement
• Has a reduced background signal
• Can be run in just 15 minutes
• Can be used with any biological, nutraceutical or food sample
• Less expensive
• Available in cuvette and microplate formats
• No boiling tubes with marbles