Methyl viologen as a preferred electron acceptor in metabolic experiments

Widely used artificial electron acceptors, including dichlorophenol-indophenol, methylene blue, and phenazine ethosulfate, were shown to induce the nonenzymatic decarboxylation of pyruvate. This characteristic rendered these electron acceptors unsuitable for use in metabolic experiments. In contrast, methyl viologen stimulated the pentose phosphate pathway in mouse preimplantation embryos without decarboxylating pyruvate in the process. Furthermore, methyl viologen had no effect on the Embden-Myerhoff pathway and was not overtly toxic to mouse embryos. These features made methyl viologen a preferred artificial electron acceptor for metabolic studies.