Thioredoxin reductase is a flavoprotein oxidoreductase catalyzing the reduction of a cystine disulfide in thioredoxin. Thioredoxin, in turn, can reduce disulfide bonds in other proteins and serves as a reducing agent in enzymatic reactions such as those of ribonucleotide reductase and methionine sulfoxide reductase. In this work thioredoxin reductase was found to directly reduce DTNB in the absence of thioredoxin. This new reactivity of E. coli thioredoxin reductase was produced by relatively high concentrations of univalent cations such as $Na^+$, $K^+$, $Li^+$, and ${NH_4}^+$, and it appeared with the oxidation of NADPH. These results indicate that E. coli thioredoxin reductase may be slightly modified by univalent cations, and the modified enzyme directly reacts with DTNB. This DTNB-reducing activity offers a new assay method for E. coli thioredoxin reductase.