Enzymatic reduction of synthetic hemin to heme and its application to study on oxygenation in aqueous medium.

The enzyme system consisting of glucose-6-phosphate, glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase, ferredoxin, ferredoxin-NADP-reductase, and NADP was used to reduce various synthetic iron(III) porphyrins to iron(II) in aqueous buffer (pH7.0) at 25°C. The oxygenation reactions of the thus prepared iron(II) porphyrin complexes were examined and it was found that only the iron(II) picket fence porphyrin-mono(1-lauryl-2-methylimidazole) complex incorporated in liposomes of phosphatidylcholine can form a stable oxygen adduct at 25°C in neutral aqueous medium.