S-nitrosothiols may serve as carriers in the mechanism of action of endothelium-derived relaxing factor (EDRF) by stabilizing the labile nitric oxide (NO) radical from inactivation by reactive species in the physiological milieu and by delivering NO to the heme activator site of guanylyl cyclase. Low-molecular-weight thiols, such as cysteine and glutathione, form S-nitrosothiol adducts with vas...

N-Nitroso-N-methyldodecylamine and N-nitroso-N-methyltetradecylamine, which cause urinary bladder tumours in experimental animals, were detected in several hair-care products formulated with N,N-dimethyldodecylamine oxide. Quantitative determinations were made using a gas-liquid chromatograph interfaced with a thermal energy analyser and using [1-14C]N-nitroso-N-methyldodecylamine as an interna...

The reduction of p-nitroso-N-dimethylaniline, p-nitroso-N-diethylaniline, p-nitrosophenol and p-nitroso-N-phenylaniline with NADPH in the presence of aldehyde reductases 1 and 2 is described. The reactivity of these nitroso substrates is increased by hydrophobic substituents and those promoting OH- elimination from the molecule of the reduced substrate. NN-Dimethylbenzoquinonedi-iminium cation ...

Colorectal cancer is the third most common cancer in developed countries such as the U.K., but incidence rates around the world vary approx. 20-fold. Diet is thought to be a key factor determining risk: red and processed meat, but not white meat or fish, are associated with an increased risk of colorectal cancer. The endogenous formation of N-nitroso compounds is a possible explanation because ...

Formation of N-nitroso compounds in gastric juice has been implicated in the pathogenesis of cancer in the stomach after operation. Gastric juice was aspirated from 85 subjects: 23 were controls, 51 had previously undergone vagotomy and gastrojejunostomy, and 11 had previously undergone vagotomy and pyloroplasty. The gastric juice samples were analysed for pH, nitrite, and total N-nitroso compo...

Nitrosamines, or more precisely N-nitrosamines, along with N-nitrosamides, belongs to N-nitroso compounds, a class of organic compounds that have nitroso (-N=O) group attached directly nitrogen atom. Only few them occur naturally while the majority is formed by nitrosation secondary amines in living and working environment, food, tobacco smoke, etc. These scarce application industry, but they c...