The retention mechanism of technetium-99m-HM-PAO:Intracellular reaction with glutathione

Preparations of d,l- and meso-hexamethylpropyleneamine oxime (HM-PAO) labeled with technetium-99m were added to rat brain homogenates diluted with phosphate buffer (l: 10). The conversion of d,l-HM-PAO to hydrophilic forms took place with an initial rate constant of 0.12 min−1. Incubation of the brain homogenate with 2% diethyl maleate for 5 h decreased the homogenate's measured glutathione (GSH) concentration from 160 to 16 μM and decreased the conversion rate to 0.012 min−1. Buffered aqueous solutions of glutathione rapidly converted the HM-PAO tracers to hydrophilic forms having the same chromatographic characteristics as found in the brain homogenates. The rate constant for the conversion reaction of d,l-HM-PAO in GSH aqueous solution was 208 and 317 L/mol/min in two different assay systems and for meso-HM-PAO the values were 14.7 and 23.2 L/mol/min, respectively. Rat brain has a GSH concentration of about 2.3 mM and the conversion of the d,l-HM-PAO due to GSH alone should proceed with a rate constant...