Nitrogen, molecular, metabolic

Interest in metal complexes able to bind molecular dinitrogen is mainly due to a desire to understand and reproduce in the laboratory the so-called nitrogen fixation reaction. This process, which in nature is catalysed by the metalloprotein nitrogenases, reduces the inert dinitrogen molecule to the metabolically useful NH3 ... 

Ormerod, J.G., Ormerod, K.S., Gest. H. 1961. Light-dependent utilization of organic compounds and photoproduction of molecular hydrogen by photosynthetic bacteria relationships with nitrogen metabolism. Arch Biochem Biophys 94 449 63. 

The a-oxidation pathway ofTV-nitrosodiethanolamine metabolism (Figure 2) leads to the formation of an a-hydroxynitrosamine that rapidly decomposes, producing glycol aldehyde, acetaldehyde, ethylene glycol and molecular nitrogen. The latter is assumed to arise from a reactive (2-hydroxyethyl)diazonium ion, which probably is responsible for the formation of 2-hydroxyethylated adducts in DNA (Scherer et al., 1991 Loeppky etal., 1998 Loeppky, 1999). 

Hydrazine is metabolized by rat liver microsomal enzymes to unknown products, ultimately yielding molecular nitrogen (Timbrell et al., 1982 Jeimer Timbrell, 1995). This was dependent upon oxygen and NADPH and was increased by NADH in the presence of NADPH. Hydrazine metabolism was 20-70% lower in human microsomes prepared from three individuals compared with rats. Hydrazine is also metabolized by rat liver mitochondria, but the monoamine oxidase inhibitors clorgyline and pargyline do not significantly decrease this activity (Jenner Timbrell, 1995). 

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