Yasushi Yamazoe

The effect of pituitary factor on the constitutive and inducible levels of hepatic phenobarbital (PB)-inducible major cytochrome P-450, P-450b and P-450e, in male and female rat livers was studied by immunoblot analyses. Although only trace amounts (approximately 4 pmol/mg protein) of P-450b and P-450e were detected in untreated adult rats, hypophysectomy increased the contents of P-450b and P-450e 58- and 14-fold, respectively, in male rats and 118- and 30-fold, respectively, in female rats. Th

Hepatocyte nuclear factor 4alpha (HNF4alpha) is an important transcription factor in hepatic gene expression. Here, we have investigated the role of HNF4alpha in the expression of drug-metabolizing enzymes and transporters in human hepatocytes using an adenovirus expressing human HNF4alpha-small interfering RNA (hHNF4alpha-siRNA). The hHNF4alpha-siRNA effectively reduced the mRNA and nuclear protein levels of hHNF4alpha in a concentration-dependent manner. The hHNF4alpha-siRNA also decreased the

The mechanism involved in the metabolic activation of 2-amino-3-methylimidazo[4,5-f]quinoline, which is a pyrolysate isolated from broiled foods, to a mutagenic intermediate was studied in vitro. In a system containing hepatic microsomes and reduced nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate, 2-amino-3-methylimidazo[4,5-f]quinoline was converted to a product which was directly mutagenic to Salmonella typhimurium. The structure of the mutagenic metabolite was determined as the 2-N-hydroxy deriva

To investigate the possible drug interaction with herbal medicine, furanocoumarin derivatives isolated from several Umbelliferous crude drugs were examined for their inhibitory effects on a typical human drug metabolizing enzyme, cytochrome P450 3A (CYP3A). Most furanocoumarins tested at 0.1 mM reduced microsomal testosterone 6beta-hydroxylation as an index of CYP3A activity to less than 50% of the control. In particular, the dimer and trimer derivatives of furanocoumarins showed striking inhibi

Characteristics of a typical male-dominant reaction, dealkylation of n-propoxycoumarin, in rat livers were studied in relation to microsomal testosterone 6 beta-hydroxylase. The depropylation was more than 10-fold higher in the liver of male than female adult rats, but the sex-related difference was eliminated by neonatal castration. Hypophysectomy of adult male rats, which decreased the rates of male-specific P-450-male-dependent reactions, increased the depropylation of propoxycoumarin, while

The presence of relatively high levels of prostaglandin H synthase (PHS) in the dog urinary bladder and its ability to mediate the activation of carcinogenic arylamines to DNA-bound products in vitro suggests the involvement of this enzyme in arylamine-induced bladder carcinogenesis. Since the PHS-dependent metabolism of 2-naphthylamine (2-NA) had been shown to yield both ring- and N-oxidation products in vitro, we compared the reactivity of 3H-labeled N-hydroxy-2-naphthylamine (N-OH-2-NA), 2-ni

The enzymatic activation of a promutagenic pyrolysate, 2-amino-3,8-dimethylimidazo[4,5-f]quinoxaline (MeIQx), was studied using the Ames mutagenesis test system. The enzyme catalyzing the mutagenic activation of MeIQx is mainly localized in the microsomal fraction. A large number of revertants was observed in the presence of hepatic microsomes obtained from 3-methylcholanthrene (3-MC)- or polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB)-treated rats but only a minimal number with the hepatic microsomes from untre