| Abstract: | The monooxygenase cytochrome P-450 is a ubiquitous enzyme well known for its role in the detoxication of drugs and xenobiotics and the biosynthesis of the steroid hormones. The toxicity and carcinogenicity of many chemicals is frequently due to the formation of oxygenated reactive intermediates, which are formed by the same enzymes that effect the detoxication of these chemicals, namely the cytochromes P-450. In mammalia the cytochromes P-450 exist as a group of isoenzymes with overlapping substrate affinities, selectively and differentially induced by their specific substrates or inhibitors. As few enzyme assays have been shown to be specific for a particular cytochrome P-450 isoenzyme the characterisation of these isoenzymes has been dependent on their isolation and purification. It is therefore important to know whether one or more isoenzyme of cytochrome P-450 is specifically concerned with the activation of carcinogens and chemicals, rather than their detoxication, and to develop a specific enzymic assay for this activating enzyme. |
