Coordinate cis-[Cr(C₂O₄)(pm)(OH₂)₂]⁺ Cation as Molecular Biosensor of Pyruvate’s Protective Activity Against Hydrogen Peroxide Mediated Cytotoxity

Abstract

In this paper instrumental methods of carbon dioxide (CO₂) detection in biological material were compared. Using cis-[Cr(C₂O₄)(pm)(OH₂)₂]⁺ cation as a specific molecular biosensor and the stopped-flow technique the concentrations of CO₂ released from the cell culture medium as one of final products of pyruvate decomposition caused by hydrogen peroxide were determined. To prove the usefulness of our method of CO₂ assessment in the case of biological samples we investigated protective properties of exogenous pyruvate in cultured osteosarcoma 143B cells exposed to 1 mM hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂) added directly to culture medium. Pyruvic acid is well known scavenger of H₂O₂ and, moreover, a molecule which is recognized as one of the major mediator of oxidative stress detected in many diseases and pathological situations like ischemia-reperfusion states. The pyruvate's antioxidant activity is described as its rapid reaction with H₂O₂, which causes nonenzymatic decarboxylation of pyruvate and releases of CO₂, water and acetate as final products. In this work for the first time we have correlated the concentration of CO₂ dissolved in culture medium with pyruvate's oxidant-scavenging abilities. Moreover, the kinetics of the reaction between aqueous solution of CO₂ and coordinate ion, cis-[Cr(C₂O₄)(pm)(OH₂)₂]⁺ was analysed. The results obtained enabled determination of the number of steps of the reaction studied. Based on the kinetic equations, rate constants were determined for each step.

1. Introduction

Oxygen-derived free radical anion formed by mono-, di- or trivalent reduction of molecular oxygen have been involved in many disease such as diabetes, hypertension, ischemia-reperfusion injury, neurodegenerative disorders, atherosclerosis and others [1-4]. The presence of reactive oxygen species (ROS) including: superoxide anion (O₂^·-), hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂) and more potent oxidant hydroxyl radical (HO^·) can lead to irreversible damages of cell's components - proteins, lipids and DNA [5-7]. Since mammalian cells even in physiological state are constantly exposed to free radicals, they require a functional system of antioxidants to protect themselves from the toxic actions of ROS [8]. The most characteristic elements of this system are superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase, peroxiredoxins, α-tocopherol, glutathione and ascorbic acid [9]. Among others also pyruvic acid belongs to this battery of anti-oxidants and it seems to be useful and powerful scavenger of hydrogen peroxide and other peroxides.

H₂O₂ is considered as a one of the most important mediators of oxidative stress. It can be produced intracellularly, especially by respiratory chain reaction and by extracellular oxidative burst mechanism used by activated inflammatory cells. In the presence of reduced transition metals, H₂O₂ can be transformed to more aggressive hydroxyl radical, which at least partially contributes to the cytotoxity of H₂O₂ [10]. Moreover, the ability of H₂O₂ to penetrate biological membranes allows to affect not only cells in which it was produced but also neighbouring cells [9]. The excessive production of H₂O₂ was noted in aging brain, in ischemia-reperfusion situations and the increase the level of H₂O₂ probably participates in the neuronal damage observed in Parkinson's disease [11-13]. Taking into consideration all those facts it seems that antioxidant properties of pyruvic acid (CH₃COCOOH), which is also recognised as compound involved in energy production can play an important protective role against the toxity of hydrogen peroxide [14-16]. Furthermore, the pyruvate can be considered as an endogenous, as well as a specific exogenous antioxidant since many types of cells including neurons release into plasma and serum where it can protect them against the acting of H₂O₂ [17]. According to Mallet RT et. all for the antioxidant properties of pyruvic acid are responsible its chemical structure and the patterns of its cellular metabolism [18]. The α-ketocarboxylate structure enables pyruvate to detoxify H₂O₂ in a direct, nonenzymatic reaction in which H₂O₂ is reduced to H₂O and pyruvic acid undergoes transformation to CO₂ and acetate [19].

$$\text{pyruvate}+{\text{H}}_2{\text{O}}_2\to \text{acetate}+{\text{CO}}_2+{\text{H}}_2\text{O}$$

(1)

Despite the fact that the above presented reaction was described in 1904 by Holleman the mechanism of the antioxidant action of the pyruvate has not been fully elucidated to date. In the present study, using a novel specific molecular biosensor - coordinate ion, cis-[Cr(C₂O₄)(pm)(OH₂)₂]⁺, where pm denotes pyridoxamine and stopped-flow spetrophotometry method we were able to correlate the amount of liberated CO₂ as one of final products of the chemical reaction between exogenous pyruvate and exogenous H₂O₂ with the cytoprotective activity of pyruvate. We also analyzed kinetics of this reaction using both biological and chemical models. Moreover, it was proved that reactive oxygen species could modulate activity of mitochondrial enzyme pyruvate dehydrogenase (PDH) [20]. It has been although found that no change in PDH activity in the brain occurred following ischemia but as much as 65% inhibition following 24h of reperfusion and H₂O₂ generation was detected [21]. This is why we decided to measure the protection of pyruvate, as well as CO₂ level after 24 hours of H₂O₂ treatment. Thus it seems highly probable that nonenzymatic activity between pyruvate and H₂O₂ can substitute deficiency of PDH activity.

The structure of the synthesised complex of chromium(III) is shown in Figure 1 (A). It can be seen that the metal ion is coordinated by two oxygen atoms from oxalato anion, two oxygen atoms from two aqua ligands and one oxygen and one nitrogen atoms from pyridoxamine in cis-[Cr(C₂O₄)(pm)(OH₂)₂]⁺ ion.

The pyridoxamine acts as a bidentate ligand coordinating through the deprotonated phenolic-oxygen and the nitrogen donor atom from the amine group. Pyridinium nitrogen is protonated and it does not participate in binding of coordination center. For pyridoxamine, two types of tautomer forms are possible, as shown in Figure 1 (B). The structure of the ligand in pyridoxamine corresponds to type b. This structure was proposed also on the basis of the already published solution studies [22-25].

The selection of chromium(III) as the coordination center allows to obtain inert complexes undergoing slow transformations at ambient temperature, thus enabling investigation of the kinetics and mechanism of the processes under favorrable conditions. Furthermore, studies on the kinetics and mechanism of CO₂ uptake by the coordination compounds consisting of the inert Cr(III) ion and a ligand molecule of pyridoxamine are aimed at elucidation of the mechanism of action of one of the metabolic steps. Carbon dioxide is caught by complexes of transition metal ions from biological material stoichiometrically as carbonate anion. This anion can be removed in the presence of acid as carbon dioxide (hydrolysis - reverse reaction to uptake) stoichiometrically too. The course of these two reactions can be presented as follows:

$${\text{CO}}_2+[{\text{M}}_{\text{trans}}]\underset{\begin{array}{c}+{\text{H}}^{+}\\ \text{hydrolysis}\end{array}}{\overset{\text{uptake}}{\rightleftharpoons }}{[{\text{M}}_{\text{trans}}({\text{O}}_2\text{CO})]}^{\text{n}}$$

(2)

2. Results and Disscusion

The coordination compound of Cr(III) with as bidendate ligand - pyridoxamine turned out to be successfully applied in the case of the detection of CO₂ generated in the reaction of decarboxylation of pyruvate caused by 1 mM H₂O₂. The reaction between the cis-[Cr(C₂O₄)(pm)(OH₂)₂]⁺ ion and carbon dioxide in aqueous solutions was observed between 340 – 700 nm by using stopped-flow method. In the first step of our studies the chemical model for this reaction was adopted, which had been already described in earlier paper [26]. While carrying out the measurements of CO₂ uptake reaction by the cis-[Cr(C₂O₄)(pm)(OH₂)₂]⁺ cation it was noted that for all probes studied the approximated curve decayed bi-exponentially. It should be stressed that the reaction studied proceeded in two steps. Observable rate constants k_1obs for the carbon dioxide uptake and k_2obs for the ring closure for this compound were obtained by fitting the rate data to the pseudo-first order kinetic equation for consecutive reaction model (A→B→C). The results showing the dependence [H⁺] from observable constant rates (k_obs) are demonstrated in Figures 2 and 3, respectively.

The results of calculations for reaction studied showed that at increasing [H⁺] and T=const the observable rate constant increased for carbon dioxide uptake (k_1obs [s^-1]) and the ring closure stages (k_2obs [s^-1]).

These results could be also treated as a confirmation of bistage reaction type. In the first step, an intermediate compound B is formed and subsequently converted to a final product C, characteristic for the second step. The results of global analysis, for reaction of CO₂ uptake by the cis-[Cr(C₂O₄)(pm)(OH₂)₂]⁺ ion within the consecutive reaction model are presented in Figure 4.

The chemical and biological models of the reaction of CO₂ uptake have been suggested for cis-[Cr(C₂O₄)(pm)(OH₂)₂]⁺ complex ion based on absorption spectra which are shown in Figure 4 (A). During the carbon dioxide uptake (where both CO₂ was generated in chemical reaction; as well as) by cis-[Cr(C₂O₄)(pm)(OH₂)₂]⁺ complex ion the most significant changes of absorbance could be seen at λ = 560 nm. Furthermore, in the reaction between pyruvate and H₂O₂ in culture medium) It can be treated as a confirmation that the proposed chemical model fits to the biological system. This testifies about very. At the first step (carbon dioxide uptake), kinetics data were fitted by simple A→B reaction model (where B denotes moving-product). At the second step (the closure of the ring of carbonate ion), the reaction was monitored at maximum differences in molar absorptivities between the moving-products and products (B→C reaction model). It should be pointed that using two methods; namely the singular value decomposition (SVD) analysis and global analysis (GA), the same results were obtained. Next the mathematical model for CO₂ uptake by cis-[Cr(C₂O₄)(pm)(OH₂)₂]⁺ was proposed. Based on the determined acidity constants, K₁ and K₂ and the observable rate constants, k_1obs the final equation was obtained:

$$\frac{{\mathbf{\text{k}}}_{\mathbf{1}\mathbf{\text{obs}}}\mathbf{(}{\mathbf{[}{\mathbf{\text{H}}}^{+}\mathbf{]}}^{\mathbf{2}}+{\mathbf{\text{K}}}_{\mathbf{1}}\mathbf{[}{\mathbf{\text{H}}}^{+}\mathbf{]}+{\mathbf{\text{K}}}_{\mathbf{1}}{\mathbf{\text{K}}}_{\mathbf{2}}}{{\mathbf{\text{K}}}_{\mathbf{1}}\mathbf{[}{\mathbf{\text{CO}}}_{\mathbf{2}}\mathbf{]}}={\mathbf{\text{k}}}_{\mathbf{1}}\mathbf{[}{\mathbf{\text{H}}}^{+}\mathbf{]}+{\mathbf{\text{K}}}_{\mathbf{2}}{\mathbf{\text{K}}}_{\mathbf{2}}$$

(3)

Then, based on the linear relationship between ([H⁺]² + K₁[H⁺] + K₁K₂)k_1obs/K₁[CO₂] and [H⁺], rate constants k₁[s^-1M^-1] and k₂[s^-1M^-1] were determined for each concentration of CO₂ (T=15°C) in the whole pH range between the measured and calculated pK₁ and pK₂ values. Plots of ([H⁺]² + K₁[H⁺] + K₁K₂)k_1obs/K₁[CO₂] vs. [H⁺] yield straight lines with slopes k₁ and intercepts of k₂K₂ as shown in Figure 5.

As it is evident from Figure 5, the intercepts at each temperature are negligibly small. This phenomenon is certainly not due to the inactivity of the cis-[Cr(C₂O₄)(pm)(OH)₂]^- ion species, but rather to the large uncertainty of k_1obs at higher pH owing to the slow concurrent hydrolysis of CO₂ at high pH [27-28]. The rate constants k₁ [s^-1M^-1] and k₂ [s^-1M^-1] at various concentrations of carbon dioxide for cis-[Cr(C₂O₄)(pm)(OH)₂]^- ion are listed in

Table 1. Rate parameters for the carbon dioxide uptake reaction by cis-[Cr(C₂O₄)(pm)(OH₂)₂]⁺ Ion in T=20°C.

CO2 [M]	k1 [ms-1 mM-1]	k2 [s-1 M-1]
CO2 was generated control sample
1.08	5.61E-1	7.88E-1
1.87	5.68E-1	7.89E-1
2.13	5.7E-1	7.91E-1
3.33	5.94E-1	8.07E-1
4.12	6.03E-1	8.13E-1
CO2 was generated upon addition of 1 mM H2O2 to the culture medium
1.02	5.61E-1	7.82E-1
1.87	5.68E-1	7.89E-1
2.88	5.88E-1	8.03E-1
3.43	5.95E-1	8.08E-1
CO2 was generated upon addition of 0.5 mM sodium pyruvate to the culture medium
2.65	5.81E-1	7.95E-1
2.77	5.87E-1	7.98E-1
3.09	5.92E-1	8.06E-1
3.38	5.94E-1	8.07E-1
3.65	5.96E-1	8.09E-1
CO2 was generated upon addition of 1 mM sodium pyruvate to the culture medium
2.99	5.91E-1	8.05E-1
3.84	5.98E-1	8.10E-1
3.98	6.01E-1	8.11E-1
4.12	6.03E-1	8.13E-1
4.34	6.05E-1	8.15E-1
CO2 [M]	k1 [ms-1 mM-1]	k2 [ms-1 mM-1]
CO2 was generated upon addition of 5 mM sodium pyruvate to the culture medium
6.09	6.07E-1	8.18E-1
6.66	6.12E-1	8.21E-1
6.94	6.14E-1	8.23E-1
7.12	6.17E-1	8.25E-1
8.23	6.28E-1	8.29E-1
9.23	6.35E-1	8.55E-1
9.98	6.41E-1	8.63E-1
CO2 was generated upon addition of 0.5 mM pyruvate and 1 mM H2O2
8.07	6.23E-1	8.27E-1
8.39	6.29E-1	8.32E-1
8.60	6.31E-1	8.47E-1
11.2	6.53E-1	8.91E-1
13.2	7.22E-1	9.31E-1
CO2 was generated upon addition of 1 mM pyruvate and 1 mM H2O2
32.3	8.73E-1	1.09
33.6	9.02E-1	1.11
44.3	1.01	1.26
52.3	1.09	1.31
CO2 was generated upon addition of 5 mM pyruvate and 1 mM H2O2
84.6	1.41	1.67
88.9	1.43	1.68
89.1	1.44	1.71
91.2	1.48	1.74
98.2	1.54	1.81

The error in k₁[ms^-1mM^-1] and k₂[ms^-1mM^-1] oscillates from 0.8% to 2.8%.

.

The results, which are collected in Table 1, show that rate constant k₁ [s^-1M^-1] (involves the reaction of CO₂ with the monohydroxo complex) is larger than k₂ [s^-1M^-1] (involves the reaction of CO₂ with the bishydroxo species) at all concentrations of carbon dioxide.

It has been found that during the second step a final product, cis-[Cr(C₂O₄)(pm)(O₂CO₂)]^-, is formed from the intermediate, cis-[Cr(C₂O₄)(pm)(O₂COH)(OH₂)]⁰. Since at increasing [CO₂] and pH the rate constant k_2obs (Figure 3) decreases, it can be concluded, that among the three protolytic forms existing in solution, the ring closure occurs more readily in the cis-[Cr(C₂O₄)(pm)(OCO₂H)(OH₂)]⁰ compound. For the second step only the observable rate constant k_2obs was determined whereas both the kinetic equations and the acidity constant were not determined. This was due to the fact that the second step was disturbed by the hydrolysis reaction of the product, cis-[Cr(C₂O₄)(pm)(O₂CO)]^- anion.

Proposed mechanism assumes that the reaction proceeds in two steps. In the first rapid step, CO₂ is captured to cis-[Cr(C₂O₄)(pm)(OH₂)₂]⁺ ion and forms an intermediate product, in which the carbonate ion is linked to chromium(III) through one oxygen atom. In the second step new bond is formed between the hydrogen atom of the OH group (donor) and the oxygen atom of CO₂ (acceptor).

Described method of CO₂ detection allowed us to correlate the amount of released CO₂ to culture medium with cytoprotective properties of pyruvate. Desagher et al. proved that extracellular pyruvate, as well as some other α - ketoacids were able to protect neurons against both exogenous and endogenous produced H₂O₂. They also confirmed that in scavenging activity of pyruvic acid direct reaction with oxidant – H₂O₂ played crucial role and it was completely independent of pyruvate's influence on energy state of cells [29]. In our experiments we also confirmed that the addition of sodium pyruvate to the culture medium protected osteosarcoma 143B cells in a dose-dependent manner. Moreover, we proved that the relation between the level of CO₂ and cell survival could be useful method for the assessment of the antioxidant activities of purivic acid.

In our experiments we examined the capacity of sodium of pyruvate (we used three concentrations of 0.5 mM, 1 mM and 5 mM) to protect cultured osteosarcoma 143B cells exposed to 1 mM H₂O₂. The significant protection against H₂O₂ induced toxity was noted only for 1 mM and 5 mM concentrations of pyruvate what is in agreement with published data [30, 31]. When cells were preincubated with 0.5 mM sodium pyruvate (95% confidence intervals [CI], median 9.9%, range 9.51-12.54 of viable cells in compare to control) we observed slightly differences in cells survival in comparison to cells treated with H₂O₂ alone (95% CI, median 8.87%, range 8.13-9.77 of control) [Figure 6 (A)]. The level of CO₂ increased only 4-times in comparison to control [Figure 6 (B)]. Among concentration used in our experiments the 0.5 mM sodium pyruvate was the closest to physiological concentration of endogenous pyruvate which is between 0.1 and 0.2 mM in arterial plasma [32, 33]. 1 mM sodium pyruvate was much more effective but it was still unable to protect completely osteosarcoma cells form injury caused by H₂O₂ (95% CI, median 74.99%, range 60.37-85.02 of control) [Figure 6 (A)]. It is well known that pyruvate in the milimolar concentrations reacts with H₂O₂ in a 1:1 stoichiometry. However, the observed ineffectiveness in protection can be explained by the reactivity of H₂O₂ which may react with exogenous pyruvate, as well as with crucial elements of the cells in the same time [34]. The level of CO₂ generated when both reactants were added at 1 mM concentration increased 16-times in comparison to control [Figure 6 (B)]. The highest concentration of CO₂ was detected for 5 mM sodium pyruvate, which was also the most effective protectant against cell injury caused by H₂O₂ (95% CI, median 106,61% of control, range 100.59 – 117.98) [Figure 6 (A)]. After incubation with 5 mM sodium pyruvate the CO₂ concentration in the medium was about 36-times higher than in control [Figure 6 (B)]. This result is in a good agreement with observation that 5 mM sodium pyruvate not only completely protected cells but even induced cell proliferation [Figure 6 (A)]. The statistic analyses did not reveal significant differences between CO₂ generation in the medium with or without cells. However, it is possible that for the slight increase in CO₂ concentration observed in the presence of cells the metabolic transformation by pyruvate dehydrogenase is responsible. The pyruvic acid is known as an energy substrate and excess of it could have probably caused improvement in cellular metabolism and thus stimulation of cells growth [35]. The comparison of control media with and without cells indicated that for the initially 1,16 μM (95% CI, range 1,11-1,19) concentration of CO₂ in the control medium is responsible not only cellular respiration and activity of pyruvate dehydrogenase an enzyme which transforms pyruvate to Acetyl-CoA and CO₂[36] but also the presence of CO₂ which comes from the 5% CO₂ in the culture air. CO₂ is in the equilibrium with the HCO₃^- (NaHCO₃ was a component of media) in the medium to ensure a pH value close to 7.2 necessary to proper cells growth. Furthermore, our experiments showed that after addition of pyruvate into cell culture medium one might observe evolution of CO₂ from reactivity of pyruvate with endogenous produced H₂O₂ [Figure 6 (C)] Thus it is very important to note that pyruvate supplementation not only protects cells exposed to oxidative stress but also prevents artefactual response of cell culture system from unexpected stress generation from cell culture medium components [37].

3. Materials and Methods

3.1. Reagents

Dihydrochloride pyridoxamine was purchased from Sigma. The cis form of diaquapyroxamino-oxalatochromate(III) was prepared according to standard literature procedures [25]. The final products, cis-[Cr(C₂O₄)(L-L)(O₂CO)]^- (where L-L denotes bidentate ligand – pyridoxamine (pm)) was synthesised by a modification of the method described in [38]. An aqueous solution of K₂Cr₂O₇ (4.0 g, 8 mL) was gradually added to H₂C₂O₄.2H₂O solution (12 g, 17 mL). The precipitated crystals of trans-K[Cr(C₂O₄)₂(OH₂)₂].3H₂O were filtered off and flushed with ice-cold water and ethanol. Next, the solution of trans-K[Cr(C₂O₄)₂(OH₂)₂].3H₂O (1.96 g, 40 mL) was heated for 15 minutes (70°C – 75°C), after which its pH was adjusted to around 9. A stoichiometric quantity of pyridoxamine (5 mmol, 10 mL, pH ≈ 9) was added to this solution and then the mixture was stirred for 15 minutes, cooled and acidified with 0.5 M HClO₄ to pH ≈ 2. The complex anion was separated by ion-exchange column chromatography (DOWEX 1 × 8 anionite). Fe(NO₃)₃ (0.2 M, 25 mL) and HNO₃ (2 M, 15 mL) were added to the cis-[Cr(C₂O₄)₂(pm)]^- ion solution (180 mL). After being heated for 20 minutes (318 K) the solution was left to cool. The post-reaction mixture was gradient-eluted in a chromatographic column. Next, the pH of the solution of cis-[Cr(C₂O₄)(pm)(OH₂)₂]⁺ (1 g, 10 mL) was adjusted to 8.5 by the portion-wise addition of aq. K₂CO₃ (32 mg, 10 mL). The solution was stirred for 10 minutes, then was cooled to 0°C. The composition of the product, blue crystals of cis-K[Cr(C₂O₄)(pm)(O₂CO)], was determined by elemental analysis. The results of analytical calculations for KC₁₁H₁₂CrN₂O₉: C, 32.43; H, 2.95; N, 6.88 were in good agreement with those obtained from the elemental analysis: C, 32.44.; H, 3.00; N, 6.87. Using analytical techniques the molar ratios for components of the complex cis-[Cr(C₂O₄)(pm)(O₂CO)]^- ion were obtained: Cr(III) : C₂O₄^2- : pm : CO₃^2- = 1 : 1 : 1 : 1. The complex ion, cis-[Cr(C₂O₄)(pm)(O₂CO)]^-, was decomposed into its components in the presence of the Cr(II)_(aq) ion in an argon atmosphere [39]. Chromium(III) and pyridoxamine were quantitatively characterised spectrophotometrically [40]. To identify CO₃^2- anion the potentiometry titration method was used. A standard solution of HCl (0.102 M) in the presence of 1% aq. methyl orange [41] was used in each titration.

3.2. Cell culture

The osteosarcoma 143B cell line (ATCC-8303) was cultured at 37°C in a humidified atmosphere with 5% CO₂ in Dulbecco's Modified Eagle's Medium supplemented with 10% heat-inactivated fetal bovine serum and penicillin (100 μg/ml) / streptomycin (100 μg/ml) without sodium pyruvate (Sigma Chemicals Co., St. Louis, MO, U.S.A).

3.3. Cell treatment

The cells passed by standard methods of trypsinization using 0.25% trypsin and 0.02% EDTA solution, cultured under conditions described above for 24 hours before replacing with experimental medium containing different concentrations of sodium pyruvate (0.5 mM, 1 mM and 5 mM). After 30 minutes of preincubation 1 mM H₂O₂ (Sigma Chemicals, U.S.A) was added. Cells were incubated for next 24 hours before the level of CO₂ in the medium, as well as cell viability were measured.

3.4. Preincubation of medium with catalase

To exclude possible involvement of culture medium as a source of H₂O₂ which may cause decarboxylation of pyruvate 1 unit/ml of catalase (Sigma Chemicals, U.S.A) was added to the medium for 30 minutes before addition of sodium puryvate. Then, after 24 hours of incubation the CO₂ was measured.

3.5. Cell viability: MTT assay

The cytoprotective properties of pyruvate were determined using MTT assay. Briefly, the osteosarcoma 143B cells were seeded onto 96-well plates at the density of 4 × 10³ per well and cultured for 24 hours, then cells were treated with sodium pyruvate and H₂O₂. After 24 h 0,5 mg/ml of 3-[4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl]-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) was added. The plates were incubated for 4 h and supernatant was removed after centrifugation (700 xg for 10 min). Finally, 100 μL of DMSO (Sigma Chemicals, U.S.A) was added. The absorbance was recorded using an Jupiter ELISA reader (ASYS Hitech) at 550 nm wavelength with references at wavelength of 630 nm and the cells survival was calculated. Percentage viability was defined as a 100% times the ratio of absorbance in the samples to the average absorbance in the control (untreated cells).

3.6. Kinetic measurements and simulation

Two buffer solutions were used: 0.2 M MES [2-(4-morpholino)ethanesulfonic acid] and 0.2 M TRIS [tris(hydroxymethyl)-aminomethane], both prepared by dissolving appropriate samples in MiliQ water. pH was measured by using a CX 731 pH-meter (reading accuracy of 0.01 pH unit) and a combined electrode manufactured by Hanna. Solutions of the studied complex were prepared by mixing 0.5 mL of the cis-[Cr(C₂O₄)(L-L)(OH₂)₂]⁺ (C = 10^-3 M) with 2 mL of 0.2 M MES or TRIS and 2 mLof 2 M NaClO₄ solutions. The reaction studied was investigated over the pH range 6.50 < pH < 9.12 and at T = 15° C. The cells were seeded onto 100-mm culture plates at the density of 1.10⁶ per plate and incubated and treated as described before, than the culture medium was collected and used for CO₂ concentration analysis by using stopped-flow spectrophotometry method.

3.7. Instrumentation

Spectral measurements were recorded in the UV-Vis region using a Perkin-Elmer Lambda 18 Instrument with the scan accuracy of 1 nm and 1 nm slit width at a scanning rate of 120.00 nm min^-1. The pK₁ and pK₂ values in the ground state were computed by using Origin 6.0 program, based on absorbance variations at a selected wavelength and by using non-linear least squares method according to the equation described in [42]. Kinetic measurements were carried out using a stopped-flow technique and an Applied Photophysics SX-17MV spectrophotometer. The observable rate constants were computed using a “Glint” program based on global analysis [43-46].

3.8. Statistical Analysis

Data were computed using Statistica 7.1 program (Statsoft, Poland). Parametric and non-parametric distribution was assessed by Shapiro-Wilk test. The analysis was based on non-parametric statistic Wilcoxon test signed-rank as indicated by data distribution.

4. Conclusion

In this paper we described a new method of carbon dioxide detection in the physiological cell culture medium. Moreover, we have presented usefulness of our method, which is based on the interaction of CO₂ with the coordination compound of cis-[Cr(C₂O₄)(pm)(OH₂)₂]⁺ ion for the CO₂ detection in biological samples. Furthermore, the kinetic studies of carbon dioxide uptake by cis-[Cr(C₂O₄)(pm)(OH₂)₂]⁺ ion using the stopped-flow method enabled us to conclude that the reaction studied proceeded in two steps, namely carbon dioxide uptake (first step) and the closure of the ring of carbonate ion (the second step). The presented method above seems also to be handy tool to analyse scavenging reaction of H₂O₂ by pyruvate in biological samples. The measurement of CO₂ concentration can be used not only to analyse chemical reaction but it can be also a marker of pyruvate's protection efficiency against oxidative stress.

Our results provided arguments for usefulness of pyruvate application for cell culture studies where culture media could produce artefectually significant levels of H₂O₂ before treatment of cells. On the other hand endogenous and exogenous source of H₂O₂ being implicated in cytotoxity in variety of human diseases can be safety prevented by pyruvate. The efficiency of this scavenger was clearly demonstrated by novel application of CO₂ molecular biosensor.