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DOES THE AEROBIC XANTHINE OXIDASE REACTION GENERATE SINGLET OXYGEN? *
Author(s) -
Nagano Tetsuo,
Fridovich Irwin
Publication year - 1985
Publication title -
photochemistry and photobiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.818
H-Index - 131
eISSN - 1751-1097
pISSN - 0031-8655
DOI - 10.1111/j.1751-1097.1985.tb03444.x
Subject(s) - singlet oxygen , chemistry , xanthine oxidase , photochemistry , oxygen , xanthine , rubrene , catalase , superoxide dismutase , superoxide , singlet state , radical , medicinal chemistry , enzyme , organic chemistry , physics , nuclear physics , excited state
— The aerobic xanthine oxidase reaction causes the co‐oxidation of 2,5‐dimethylfuran to cis‐diacetylethylene and the bleaching of rubrene tetracarboxylate. These actions were suppressed by superoxide dismutase, catalase, desferoxamine and by benzoate and other hydroxyl radical scavengers. The bleaching of rubrene tetracarboxylate was not enhanced in D 2 0. These results suggest that OHv, generated from O 2 ‐ plus H 2 O 2 by an iron‐catalyzed Haber Weiss reaction, was the responsible agent and that singlet oxygen was not detectably involved. Control experiments, in which singlet oxygen was generated photochemically, demonstrated that replacement of H 2 O by D 2 O caused the expected enhancement of the chemical reactivity of singlet oxygen under the conditions of these experiments and that O 2 ‐ , at concentrations achieved by the xanthine oxidase reaction, did not detectably quench singlet oxygen. We conclude that singlet oxygen, if produced at all during the aerobic xanthine oxidase reaction, cannot exceed 0.1% of the production of O 2 ‐ .