Talk:2-Mercaptoethanol

Toxic ?
So, beta-mercaptoethanol is toxic...yet it extends the lifespan of mice? -- stillnotelf   is invisible  19:46, 18 December 2006 (UTC)

I had the same question. Also dos any one know the redox potential of it? Jasoninkid 16:59, 15 January 2007 (UTC)

Iodine is also toxic... Someone who knows about this substance should consider mentioning something about how it smells really bad, which is interesting given how it "reduces the odor of the thiol" njaard 07:00, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

βME in DNA stains
It's been a while since I've used it, but we used βME in a mixture to stain DNA. I believe it was a stain used in DNA sequencing, similar to methylene blue. I don't remember the exact usage, so I won't add it, but if anyone has any more detailed information about its use as a stain... -- MacAddct &#xF8FF; 1984 (talk &#149; contribs) 17:00, 28 January 2008 (UTC)
 * Are you sure it was BME and not EtBr (Ethidium bromide)? Mjatucla (talk) 01:09, 19 February 2009 (UTC)
 * I found an article that talks about beta-mercaptoethanol usage in reducing the inflamation of mitochondria after certain staining, but nothing that says that Beta-mercaptoethanol is used to stain anything. I didn't use the information I found to edit the article because the source was a primary source. I can add the link to the article I found in case someone wants to pursue this further.
 * Langhorst, M.F., Genisyuerek, S. & Stuermer, C.A. Accumulation of FlAsH/Lumio Green in active mitochondria can be reversed by β-mercaptoethanol for specific staining of tetracysteine-tagged proteins. Histochem Cell Biol 125, 743–747 (2006). https://doi-org.proxy.wexler.hunter.cuny.edu/10.1007/s00418-005-0136-3 Pinguin destept (talk) 18:41, 15 May 2023 (UTC)

Biological Effects
Looking through the history, since this article's inception, the "biological effects" section makes it sound almost as if BME is a safe chemical one might ingest to extend his or her lifespan. In reality, this is a very dangerous chemical that is quite harmful if not fatal if ingested or rubbed on the skin. I will edit this page immediately to reflect that reality. The studies suggesting this "beneficial effect" are both over twenty years old, out of a journal of fairly low impact. For these to be the major source of information regarding "biological effects" generally is not representative given the huge amount of clear data existent about how dangerous BME is.

Looking back at the history, this edit took out a notation that the chemical is dangerous as it being "redundant" with the link to the MSDS in the chembox. Fine. But I feel that at least a description of the dangerous biological effects of the chemical is warranted in the main text of the article and will add it now. Mjatucla (talk) 01:09, 19 February 2009 (UTC)

I wonder if anyone would be upset if the "beneficial effects" section were removed completely. The references are not particularly compelling, I haven't found a lot of other confirmations of the findings, and I think the information itself is misleading. At the very least, I'd like to reword it to not make it seem like this is some "rare gem" of a "life-extending" chemical as it currently does. Mjatucla (talk) 08:00, 19 February 2009 (UTC)

==Potentially Beneficial Effects==

2-Mercaptoethanol is one of the few chemicals that extends the maximum as well as the median life span of mice. In microgram quantities, 2-mercaptoethanol has been observed to have a number of possibly beneficial effects on laboratory mice.


 * Unless there is something *more* to be said, I think we should leave this out of the article. --Rifleman 82 (talk) 08:05, 19 February 2009 (UTC)

Thiodiglycol
The current version states that thiodiglycol is a catalyst in the formation reaction, but you would surely also expect it to be a by-product of the same reaction via double addition. Presumably therefore, the reaction is autocatalytic? I can't access the given ref but it would make things interesting. An autocatalytic reaction involving ethylene oxide sounds like a fiery beast to me. --Project Osprey (talk) 09:14, 26 September 2020 (UTC)