Oxygen radical generation by Maillard compounds.

Amino sugars such as galactosamine are hepatotoxic. It has been verified that toxic hepatitis induced by galactosamine is similar to that of CCl4 poisoning, and that both were inhibited by O2* scavengers. Fructosamine results from the union of glucose with the epsilon-amine of lysine. A test for fructosamine quantification is based on nitroblue tetrazolium (NBT) reduction, in which O2- is involved, the reduction being inhibited in the presence of superoxide dismutase (SOD). Given these facts, we attempted to elucidate if galactosamine and glucosamine reduce NBT and if that reduction is inhibited by SOD. This was confirmed. Subsequently, we incubated aminoacids (glycine, lysine, alanine) with glucose and galactose for 7 days and studied the action of the incubation products on NBT, using amino acids and sugars as controls. We found that NBT reduction increases proportionally to the length of incubation time of glucose/galactose with lysine, but not with other amino acids. Reduction of NBT by the Amadori compounds formed is inhibited by SOD. We suggest that oxygen radical generation by Amadori compounds must be taken into consideration as one cause of damage in diabetes of long duration.