Control of oxidative reactions of hemoglobin in the design of blood substitutes: role of the Vc, NAC, TEMPO and their reductant system

Abstract

Oxidative reactions of hemoglobin (Hb) are still a serious problem for Hb-based blood substitute development. Although varieties of antioxidant strategies have been suggested, this in vitro study examined the ability of the ascorbate, N-Acetyl-L-Cysteine (NAC), 4-hydroxy-2, 2, 6, 6-tetramethylpiperidine-1-oxygen free radicals (TEMPO) and their reductant system in preventing Hb oxidation. The content of ferric Hb is monitored in the process of vitamin C (Vc), NAC, TEMPO and their reductant system. The results suggest that ascorbate is effective in reducing ferryl Hb, and TEMPO with Vc/NAC could obviously shorten the reaction time, but it does not play the role of Met-Hb reductases. It demonstrates that TEMPO did little to recover Hb under oxidative stress.

Keywords::

• Met-Hb
• NAC
• reduction
• TEMPO
• Vc

Acknowledgments

This report would not have been possible without the support and substantive contributions of Liu Jiaxin and Wang Hong, the Senior Research Scientists at Institute of Blood Transfusion, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Chengdu, P. R. China. I would like to thank Li Shen and Zhou Wentao who gave me a lot of help in the experiment.

Declaration of interest

The authors report no declarations of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.

The work is supported by The National High Technology Research and Development Program (“863”Program) of China (N0.2012AA021903) and The National Science Foundation of China (No.21202117/B020703).