A systematic study on the chemical stability of mitomycin A and mitomycin B.

Abstract
The kinetics and mechanisms of the degradation of mitomycin A and mitomycin B in aqueous solution were investigated by means of ultraviolet (UV) spectrophotometry and high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The influences of pH, buffers and temperature on the degradation were quantified. Degradation products were isolated and characterized by mass spectrometry (MS), UV-VIS spectrophotometry, chromatography and circular dirchroism (CD) spetroscopy. The degradation reactions follow (pseudo) first-order kinetics. The collected kinetic data allowed an accurate determination of the pKa value of the aziridine moiety of the mitomycins by using computerized curve-fitting models.