Production of reduced forms of oxygen by adrenochrome in the presence of ascorbate, microsomes and submitochondrial particles.

Adrenochrome, an oxidation product of adrenaline with psychotomimetic properties, can be reduced by ascorbate in a reaction that shows a rapid oxygen consumption. Superoxide dismutase and catalase strongly inhibit this oxygen uptake. Similarly the addition of adrenochrome to rat liver microsomes or beef heart submitochondrial particles supplemented with reduced substrates determine a large consumption of oxygen. The reported results are compatible with a redox cycle where reducing equivalents supplied by ascorbate or the electron transport chains of microsomes or mitochondria are able to reduce adrenochromewhich subsequently reoxidized by oxygen with the reproduction of superoxide anion and hydrogen peroxide.