INFRARED SPECTROSCOPIC DETERMINATION OF HEPATIC NUCLEI OXIDATION

Infrared spectroscopy was applied to the investigation of normal and o xidatively modified hepatic nuclei. The hepatic nuclei were oxidized b y two different free-radical-generating systems. Infrared spectra of o xidized nuclei were remarkably different from those of normal nuclei; the major alteration found in the spectra of oxidized nuclei was the e mergence of a new population of nucleic acids with a hydrogen-bonding pattern different from that of the normal phosphodiester groups, and a redistribution of the hydrogen bonding of the protein amide groups of the histones, indicative of protein-structural rearrangements. The sp ectral changes in the phosphate bands of the nucleic acid resemble tho se previously observed in different types of malignant tissue, and sug gest that there could be a link between nuclei oxidation and carcinoge nesis which may involve a free-radical-mediated process. (C) 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.