KEISUKE MAKINO, AKIFUMI HAGI, HIROSHI IDE, AKIRA MURAKAMI, and MASATOSH~ NISHI. Can. J. Chem. 70, 2818Chem. 70, (1992.To assign unidentified ESR signals obtained in a Fenton system with a spin trap, 5,s-dimethyl-1-pyrroline-N-oxide (DMPO), fundamental reactions of DMPO have been thoroughly investigated. When the concentration of Fe2+ in Fenton systems exceeded 1% of that of DMPO, background ESR signals totally distinguishable from 2-hydroxy-5,sdimethyl-1-pyrrolidinyloxy (DMPO-OH) appeared, and simultaneously absorbance at 520 nm increased, which was characteristic of hydroxamic acids complexed with Fe3+. To prove the postulated formation of hydroxamic acid as a key intermediate, DMPO was subjected to Fenton reaction or was treated with Fe3+ in aqueous solution to produce DMPO-OH (Makino et al. Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun. 172, 1073(1990), and a major product was isolated by RPLC.Based on 'H, I3c NMR and MS measurements, the structure of the major product was assigned to 1-hydroxy-5,5-dimethyl-1-pyrrolid-2-one (HDMPN) having a hydroxamic acid structure. Temperature dependence of NMR spectra and careful analysis of the fragmentation patterns in MS further revealed that HDMPN was present in equilibrium with 2-hydroxy-5,s-dimethyl-1-pyrroline-N-oxide (HDMPO), a tautomer of HDMPN. It has also been shown that the oxidation of DMPO yielding HDMPN and HDMPO occurs via DMPO-OH and is driven by Fe3'.. 'These oxidation products (HDMPN and HDMPO) were readily converted to the corresponding ESR visible aminoxyl radicals by oxidation and 'OH addition in aqueous solution, respectively, and superimposition of the ESR signals arising from these radicals accounts for the background signals observed in Fenton systems with DMPO as a spin trap. The method of spin trapping is a powerful tool to detect short-lived free radicals that are not detectable by conventional ESR.' In this method, through reaction with spin traps, short-lived free radicals are converted to relatively stable 'Author to whom correspondence may be addressed. 2~bbreviations: ESR, electron spin resonance spectroscopy; DMPO, 5,5-dimethyl-1 -pyrroline-N-oxide; 'OH, hydroxyl radical; DMPO-OH, 2-hydroxy-5,s-dimethyl-1-pyrrolidinyloxy; HDMPN, 1-hydroxy-5,5-dimethyl-1-pyrrolid-2-one; NMR, nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy; M3P0, 2,5,5-trimethyl-lpyrroline-N-oxide; EIMS, electron ionization mass spectrometry; TMS, tetramethylsilane; TSP-d,, 3-(trimethylsily1)propionicaminoxyl radicals (spin adducts) that are ESR detectable (1). Recently this method has been widely applied to the detection of free radicals in biological systems in attempts to correlate the free-radical formation to the initiation of various diseases (2) since a large body of accumulated evidence indicates that free-radical-induced damage of cellular constit-2,2,3,3-d, acid, sodium salt; DMPO-OOH, 2-hydroperoxy-53-dimethyl-1 -pyrrolidinyloxy; MS, mass spectrometry; RPLC, high performance reversed phase liquid chromatography; amu, atomic mass unit; HDMPO, 2-hydroxy-5,5-dimethyl-1-pyrroline-N-oxide...