Comparison in metabolic activity of cytochrome P450 1A1 on heterocyclic amines between human and rat.

In mutagenicity and antimutagenicity tests, the toxicants have been activated to the ultimate mutagenic forms usually with rat cytochrome P450 (CYP) enzymes. An understanding is important of whether these data can be available for human. In this paper are compared the activating abilities of CYP1A1 between human and rat using recombinant yeast cells that express respective CYP1A1 and yeast NADPH-CYP-oxidoreductase simultaneously. Three different types of dietary procarcinogens, heterocyclic amines, were tested by two methods: a bioassay with Salmonella mutagenicity test and a chemical determination of N-hydroxyls as the ultimate mutagenic forms. Compared with ED(50) values, saturation levels, and V(max)/K(m) values at an initial stage of the enzyme activity, human and rat CYP1A1 showed almost similar abilities for the metabolic activation on heterocyclic amines. The two enzymes also had the same preference for the tested procarcinogens and the same affinities to the specific inhibitors such as flavonoids.

Lysozyme damage caused by secondary degradation products during the autoxidation process of linoleic acid.

Autoxidized LA is classified into four groups, LA, LAHPO, SP and FP. Lysozyme is inactivated by these products in the increasing order as follows: FP less than LA less than LAHPO less than SP. The effects of these products on the amino acid composition of lysozyme is examined. All kinds of amino acid residues were not damaged until lysozyme was incubated with LA and LAHPO at 45 degrees C for 100 days. The susceptible amino acid residues attacked by the autoxidized products are tryptophan, lysine and histidine. The specific loss of methionine by SP occurs during acid-hydrolysis. The effect of SP was the strongest among the autoxidized products. FP was almost noneffective. The destructive actions of BP, MA and PA were compared with those of autoxidized products. Effects of these compounds did not resemble those of autoxidized products. It was concluded that tryptophan, lysine and histidine residues were specifically attacked by SP.