EFFECT OF SINGLET OXYGEN QUENCHERS ON OXIDATIVE DAMAGE TO LIPOSOMES INITIATED BY PHOTOSENSITIZATION OR BY RADIOFREQUENCY DISCHARGE

Abstract —Lipid model membrane systems, liposomes, may be oxidized by both toluidine blue Osensitized photo-oxidation and radiofrequency-discharge-generated singiet oxygen. Oxidation can be followed by the appearance of lipid peroxides, malondialdehyde formation, and ultimately by the lysis of the liposomes. Inhibition of oxidation is observed in both systems using either β-carotene or DABCO. These observations are consistent with the view that type II (singlet oxygen) reactions are involved in this photodynamic system.     

POLARIZED FLUORESCENCE OF 5-METHYLCYTOSINE SPECIES IN SOLUTION AT ROOM TEMPERATURE

Fluorescence yields (π_f,'s) and polarizations ( P ) are measured for aqueous 5-methylcytosine (˜ 0.1 m M ) at 20°C as a function of pH over the range 2–14. Both properties change abruptly and in parallel at pH's corresponding to the known pK_a values. Polarizations were also obtained for the 5-methylcytosine cation, neutral and anion species in ethylene glycol water glass at ˜180K. The weak fluorescence of the neutral and cation species at 20°C was polarized almost as highly as at low temperature. When the fluorescence lifetimes are assumed to be correctly given by the product of calculated radiative lifetimes and quantum yields, the polarizations are found to be consistent with rotational diffusion rates ˜4 times faster than predicted from Stokes-Einstein models for the neutral and anion species. The cation seemed to rotate about two times more slowly than the neutral and anion species. It was also shown that the properties of the three species are such that a plot of 1/P vs apparent π_f in the pH range 2–11 is fortuitously linear.     

The development of fast analyzers

Summary New instrumentation has been developed at ORNL for analyzing physiologic specimens. The system is designed for use in clinical laboratories, hospitals, and emergency rooms and for use by researchers. Miniaturized versions may also be used in prolonged space flights.After consideration of ease of automation, flexibility, and rapid startup, multiple analyses performed in parallel was chosen as the desired approach. Concepts employed in developing the system are discussed, including:(1) dynamic mixing of samples and reagents through centrifugal transfer from transfer disks into cuvets; (2) rotor design allowing emptying, flushing, and drying of cuvets; (3) precise temperature control; (4) spectrophotometric reaction monitoring; (5) data reduction, with all data stored for possible recall; (6) feedback control for error correction and time saving. Possible future improvements are indicated.

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Entwicklung schneller Analysatoren

Zusammenfassung Im Oak Ridge National Laboratory wurde ein neues Analysatorsystem entwickelt, das für die Analyse physiologischer Proben bestimmt ist und in klinischen Laboratorien, Krankenhäusern, Unfallstationen, Forschungsinstituten sowie in einer verkleinerten Version auch in der Raumfahrt zum Einsatz gelangen kann.Das System zeichnet sich aus durch leichte Automatisierbarkeit, Flexibilität, rasche Inbetriebnahme und eignet sich für parallel durchgeführte Serienanalysen. Die folgenden Charakteristica des Systems werden diskutiert: 1. Dynamisches Mischen von Proben und Reagentien durch zentrifugale Übertragung in die Küvetten, 2. Entleeren, Spülen und Trocknen der Küvetten durch Rotation, 3. Genaue Temperaturkontrolle, 4. Spektrophotometrische Reaktionsüberwachung, 5. Datenberechnung mit Speicherung aller Werte für möglichen Abruf, 6. Feedback-Kontrolle zur Fehlerkorrektur und Zeiteinsparung. Mögliche zukünftige Verbesserungen werden erwähnt.

Operated for the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission by the Nuclear Division of Union Carbide Corporation.     

The remote effect of vicinal large groups on the anomeric equilibrium: 2-methoxy-cis- and -trans-5,6-dimethyltetrahydropyrans

The anomeric equilibrium of 2-methoxy-trans-5,6-dimethyltetrahydropyran was found to have an enhanced fraction of axial methoxyl compared to 2-methoxy-4- or 6-methyltetrahydropyran. The 2-methoxy-cis-5,6-dimethyltetrahydropyran did not. The enhanced anomeric effect is attributed to a steric repulsion between the trans vicinal Me groups. A similar effect is postulated for methyl glucoside and glucose pentaacetate.     

Redox,transmetalation, and stacking properties of tetrathiafulvalene-2,3,6,7-tetrathiolate bridged tin,nickel, and palladium compounds

Here we report that capping the molecule TTFtt (TTFtt = tetrathiafulvalene-2,3,6,7-tetrathiolate) with dialkyl tin groups enables the isolation of a stable series of redox congeners and facile transmetalation to Ni and Pd. TTFtt has been proposed as an attractive building block for molecular materials for two decades as it combines the redox chemistry of TTF and dithiolene units. TTFttH₄, however, is inherently unstable and the incorporation of TTFtt units into complexes or materials typically proceeds through the in situ generation of the tetraanion TTFtt⁴⁻. Capping of TTFtt⁴⁻ with Bu₂Sn²⁺ units dramatically improves the stability of the TTFtt moiety and furthermore enables the isolation of a redox series where the TTF core carries the formal charges of 0, +1, and +2. All of these redox congeners show efficient and clean transmetalation to Ni and Pd resulting in an analogous series of bimetallic complexes capped by 1,2-bis(diphenylphosphino)ethane (dppe) ligands. Furthermore, by using the same transmetalation method, we synthesized analogous palladium complexes capped by 1,1′-bis(diphenylphosphino)ferrocene (dppf) which had been previously reported. All of these species have been thoroughly characterized through a systematic survey of chemical and electronic properties by techniques including cyclic voltammetry (CV), ultraviolet-visible-near infrared spectroscopy (UV-vis-NIR), electron paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy (EPR), nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). These detailed synthetic and spectroscopic studies highlight important differences between the transmetalation strategy presented here and previously reported synthetic methods for the installation of TTFtt. In addition, the utility of this stabilization strategy can be illustrated by the observation of unusual TTF radical–radical packing in the solid state and dimerization in the solution state. Theoretical calculations based on variational 2-electron reduced density matrix methods have been used to investigate these unusual interactions and illustrate fundamentally different levels of covalency and overlap depending on the orientations of the TTF cores. Taken together, this work demonstrates that tin-capped TTFtt units are ideal reagents for the installation of redox-tunable TTFtt ligands enabling the generation of entirely new geometric and electronic structures.

Capping TTFtt enables facile transmetalation in three different oxidation states.     

Low temperature thermal conductivity and specific heat of elastomers

The specific heat C and thermal conductivity κ of polybutadiene are characteristic of all non-crystalline materials at temperatures below ≈ K, reflecting the presence of localized excitations. The changes in C and κ with variation in crosslinking suggest that the relaxation times of the localized excitations may vary with crosslink density. Extension of an elastomer does not reveal a change in density of localized excitations as monitored by measuring κ, possibly because other phonon scattering mechanisms mask the effect. For T ? 10 K the phonon mean-free-path is independent of the microscopic anisotropy of the elastomer.