title: Potentiometric determination of cysteine with thiol sensitive silver-mercury electrode.
abstract: A potentiometric procedure for cysteine thiol group concentration monitoring in media generating free radicals was developed using a thiol specific silver-mercury electrode. Electrolytic deposition of mercury on a silver wire and treatment with 20 mM cysteine in 0.5 M NaOH were used to produce the electrode. A silver-chloride electrode in saturated KCl was the reference. A glass capillary with 1 M KNO3 in 1% agarose gel was the liquid junction. The electrode responded to cysteine concentration in the range from 0.01 to 20 mM yielding a perfect linear relationship for the dependence of log [cysteine] versus electrode potential [mV], with b0 (constant) = -373.43 [mV], b1 (slope) = -53.82 and correlation coefficient r2 = 0.97. The electrode potential change per decade of cysteine concentration was 57 mV. The minimal measurable signal response was at a cysteine concentration of 0.01 mM. The signal CV amounted to 4-6% for cysteine concentrations of 0.01 to 0.05 mM and to less than 1% for cysteine concentrations of 0.5 to 20 mM. The response time ranged from about 100 s for cysteine concentrations of 0.01 to 0.1 mM to 30 s at higher cysteine concentrations. The standard curve reproducibility was the best at cysteine concentrations from 0.1 to 20 mM. In a reaction medium containing cysteine and copper(II)-histidine complex ([His-Cu]2+) solution in 55 mM phosphate buffer pH 7.4 the electrode adequately responded to changes in cysteine concentration. Beside cysteine, the silver-mercury electrode responded also to thiol groups of homocysteine and glutathione, however, the Nernst equation slope was about half of that for cysteine.
authors.affiliation: Department of Diagnostics, Collegium Medicum, Jagiellonian University, Kraków, Poland.
authors.forename: Ryszard
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Drozdz
authors.forename: Jerzy
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Naskalski
authors.forename: Anna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Zabek-Adamska
mesh_terms: D003545:Cysteine / Q000032:analysis*; D004563:Electrochemistry / Q000379:methods; D004566:Electrodes; D004867:Equipment Design; D008628:Mercury; D011199:Potentiometry / Q000379:methods; D012834:Silver; D013438:Sulfhydryl Compounds
chemical_list: D013438:Sulfhydryl Compounds; D012834:Silver; D008628:Mercury; D003545:Cysteine