A new trend in iron-dithiocarbamate complexes: as an endogenous NO trapping agent

Iron complexes with dithiocarbamates. Fe(DTC), and their nitrosyl complexes had been studied extensively until the 1970s because of their unique magnetic and electronic properties, In the 1990s, however, Fe(DTC) are commanding attention from a different point of view, In virtue of their high reactivity toward nitric oxide (NO) and the high stability of the resultant nitrosyl complexes which exhibit a characteristic electron paramagnetic resonance signal, Fe(DTC) have been used for the detection and analysis of biological NO produced endogenously from NO synthases. We have studied the chemical basis of this detection method and its application. In spite of the method's widespread use, the chemical basis seems to be very poor. We, therefore, review the fundamental data on Fe(DTC) species and their reaction with NO, including the novel reductive nitrosylation mechanism realized in this system. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science S.A. All rights reserved.