Measurement of nitric oxide by 4,5-diaminofluorescein without interferences

The fluorescent reagent 4,5-diaminofluorescein (DAF-2) has been widely used for specific and quantitative measurements of nitric oxide (NO) in biological tissues. Recently it was reported that dehydroascorbic acid (DHA) and ascorbic acid (AA) interfere with the measurement of NO using DAF-2. A new method of assaying NO using DAF-2 eliminates these interferences; when frozen on dry ice, the NO in the original solution still diffuses and can react with an adjacent frozen block of DAF-2, but the confounding compounds such as DHA do not. Thus, placing the microliter-volume frozen blocks of solutions containing NO and the solutions of DAF-2 adjacent to each other for 30 min results in the concentration dependent formation of fluorescent product (DAF-2T) from the reaction of NO with DAF-2. The product has been characterized and the method validated using both fluorescence spectroscopy and capillary electrophoresis with laser induced fluorescence detection. With this approach, the presence of DHA and AA does not interfere with NO measurements, and product formation is inhibited in the presence of NO scavengers added to either of the solutions before freezing. The contactless DAF-2 method successfully assays NO in nitric oxide synthase-positive vertebrate and invertebrate tissues. This method allows nondestructive NO detection in biological samples that can subsequently be used for morphological and/or biochemical studies.