Water-soluble fullerene materials for bioapplications: photoinduced reactive oxygen species generation.

The photoinduced reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation from several water-soluble fullerenes was examined. Macromolecular or small molecular water-soluble fullerene complexes/derivatives were prepared and their (1)O(2) and O(2)˙(-) generation abilities were evaluated by ESR spin-trapping methods. As a result, efficient (1)O(2) generation was detected from photoexcited C(60), not only in organic solvents, but also in aqueous media and especially from small molecule C(60)-carboxylic acid derivatives. Whereas efficient O(2)˙(-) generation was observed in the aqueous solution of the C(60)/γ-CD complex under photoirradiation.