Free radical and cytotoxic effects of chelators and their iron complexes in the hepatocyte

In a comparative screening study of chelators intended for clinical use eleven iron chelators have been tested for their ability to mobilize (59Fe) iron from 59Fe-labelled ferritin and from hepatocytes of rats labelled with 59Fe-transferrin. The toxic effects of the chelators were also studied using microsomal lipid peroxidation induced by Fe3+/ADP and NADPH. From these tests it was shown that 1,2-dimethyl 3-hydroxypyrid-4-one (L1) and mimosine were the most effective iron chelators in iron mobilization and did not catalyse lipid peroxidation. In conclusion it can be stated that besides to investigate the iron binding capacity of new chelators also their ability to catalyse lipid peroxidation has to be ruled out.