Evidence against in vivo presence of 2-(2-furoyl)-4(5)-(2-furanyl)-1H-imidazole, a major fluorescent advanced end product generated by nonenzymatic glycosylation.

The reaction of protein amino groups with glucose leads to the formation of a stable Amadori product via a Schiff base adduct, which is further converted to advanced glycosylation end products (AGE) with color and unique fluorescence characteristics. 2-(2-Furoyl)-4(5)-(2-furanyl)-1H-imidazole (FFI) was recently identified as a major fluorescent compound (Ponger, S., Ulrich, P.C., Bencsath, F.A., and Cerami, A. (1984) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 81, 2684-2688). Its in vivo and in situ presence was further demonstrated by radioimmunoassays (Chang, J.C.F., Ulrich, P.C., Bucala, R., and Cerami, A. (1985) J. Biol. Chem. 260, 7970-7974). In the present study the occurrence of FFI in AGE-proteins was reassessed. The radioimmunoassay using anti-FFI antibody and high performance liquid chromatography failed to detect FFI in AGE samples obtained from bovine serum albumin, poly-L-lysine, oligo-L-lysine, and L-lysine. Even after acid hydrolysis or proteinase K digestion, FFI was undetectable. To our surprise, however, the addition of ammonia to these acid hydrolysate led to the production of FFI, suggesting the importance of acid hydrolysis and subsequent reaction with ammonia for the generation of FFI. This observation was fully supported by model experiments using AGE-samples prepared by incubating glucose with monoaminocarboxylic acids such as beta-alanine, gamma-aminobutyric acid, and epsilon-aminocaproic acid. Thus, a nonfluorescent FFI precursor is produced by acid hydrolysis, and its conversion to fluorescent FFI occurs upon subsequent reaction with ammonia, the evidence against the presence of FFI in AGE-proteins.