Capturing the sublimity of a free radical gas
Related Experiment Video
Updated: Oct 18, 2026

A Protocol for Detecting and Scavenging Gas-phase Free Radicals in Mainstream Cigarette Smoke
Published on: January 2, 2012
1Department of Anatomy, Faculty of Medicine, National University of Singapore, Singapore.
Abstract:
This paper reviews the work related to nitric oxide (NO) done by the author and his postgraduates and colleagues in the past 7 years in the National University of Singapore. Our work shows that (i) NADPH-d and NO synthase (NOS) are often but not always identical; (ii) NO (as indicated by NADPH-d histochemistry and NOS immunohistochemistry) is generated in some endocrine (thyroid, parathyroid and ultimobranchial glands) and immune (thymus and bursa of Fabricius) organs and the cochlea. It is noted from the above studies that NO could possibly regulate blood flow through the various organs via its presence in the vascular endothelial cells and also via nitrergic neurons innervating the blood vessels. It could also regulate the activity of the secretary cells of these organs by being present in them, as well as acting through nitrergic neurons closely related to them. The paper also examines the Janus-faced nature of NO as a neuroprotective and neurodestructive agent, and the apparent noninvolvement of peroxynitrite and inducible NOS in neuronal death occurring in the red nucleus and nucleus dorsalis after spinal cord hemisection.
Related Concept Videos
Sublimation
Radical Formation: Abstraction
Even though homolysis produces radicals, it is different from radical...
Phase Transitions: Sublimation and Deposition
Radical Substitution: Allylic Chlorination
Radical Substitution: Halogenation of Alkanes and Alkyl Substituents
In the initiation step of the reaction, the chlorine molecule undergoes homolytic cleavage in the presence of light or heat, forming two highly reactive chlorine radicals. Propagation occurs in two...
Radical Formation: Elimination

