Reduction of alloxan by microsomal electron transport proteins.

Alloxan behaves as a substrate for NADH:ferricytochrome b5 oxidoreductase (EC 1.6.2.2). The apparent Km for alloxan was 10 mM in liver microsomes and 20 mM with the enzyme prepared by lysosomal digestion. The apparent Km for NADH was the same with microsomes and the isolated enzyme (30 microM). The maximum turnover rate was calculated as 426 moles electrons/min X mole enzyme. Cytochrome b5 was shown to reduce alloxan nonenzymatically.