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Electron Paramagnetic Resonance in Frozen and Dried Biological Materials

Abstract

Kent and Mallard1 and Truby and Goldzieher2 have recently indicated that free radicals formed in organic omaterial are artefacts, apparently resulting from lyophilization. Our findings are not in agreement with this concept. We believe that lyophilization of living biological materials, of and by itself, produces few if any free radicals. Our investigations indicate that the electron paramagnetic resonance signals observed by others3–5 were the result of a reaction between oxygen and an unidentified component in dried specimens which formed free radicals during the interval between lyophilization and observation in the electron paramagnetic resonance spectrometer.

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References

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HECKLY, R., DIMMICK, R. Electron Paramagnetic Resonance in Frozen and Dried Biological Materials. Nature 216, 1003–1004 (1967). https://doi.org/10.1038/2161003a0

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