Autoxidative cytotoxicity: is there metal-independent formation of hydroxyl radicals. Are there crypto-hydroxyl radicals

Several laboratoreies contend that sometimes reducing free radicals reach directly with H/sub 2/O/sub 2/ to afford OH. in a metal-independent fashion, and others propose that often the strongly electrophilic reaction intermediate is either a metal-oxy complex or a crypto-hydroxyl radical (crypto-OH.) rather than OH., especially when lipid peroxidation is initiated. Our data imply that metal-independent OH. formation is not competitively significant in vivo and that adventitious metals probably were unrecognized in the reactions that prompted others to the contrary conclusion, while the confusing patterns of initiator and inhibitor reactivity that led to inferences of ferryl (or cupryl) intermediation or to the concept of crypto-OH. are explicable by the extremely short reaction radius of OH., which we show can be formed in lipid milieux that are inaccessible to hydrophilic or macromolecular scavengers.