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L Ernster

Publications and source records attributed to L Ernster.

At least 127 records · Page 7Linked to original sources
PubMed1976

The involvement of cytochrome P-450 in hepatic microsomal steroid hydroxylation reactions supported by sodium periodate, sodium chlorite, and organic hydroperoxides.

The mechanism of steroid hydroxylation in rat liver microsomes has been investigated by employing NaIO4, NaClO2, and various organic hydroperoxides as hydroxylating agents and comparing the reaction rates and steroid products formed with those of the NADPH-dependent reaction. Androstenedione, testosterone, progesterone, and 17beta-estradiol were found to act as good substrates. NaIO4 was by far the most effective hydroxylating agent followed by cumene hydroperoxide, NADPH, NaClO2, pregnenolone 17alpha-hydroperoxide, tert-butyl hydroperoxide, and linoleic acid hydroperoxide. Androstenedione was chosen as the model substrate for inducer and inhibitor studies. The steroid was converted to its respective 6beta-, 7alpha, 15-, and 16alpha-hydroxy derivatives when incubated with microsomal fractions fortified with hydroxylating agent. Evidence for cytochrome P-450 involvement in androstenedione hydroxylation included a marked inhibition by substrates and modifiers of cytochrome P-450 and by reagents which convert cytochrome P-450 to cytochrome P-420. The ratios of the steroid products varied according to the type of hydroxylating agent used and were also modified by in vivo phenobarbital pretreatment. It was suggested that multiple forms of cytochrome P-450 exhibiting different affinities for hydroxylating agent are responsible for these different ratios. Horse-radish peroxidase, catalase, and metmyoglobin could not catalyze androstenedione hydroxylation. Addition of NaIO4, NaClO2, cumene hydroperoxide and other organic hydroperoxides to microsomal suspensions resulted in the appearance of a transient spectral change in the difference spectrum characterized by a peak at about 440 nm and a trough at 420 nm. The efficiency of these oxidizing agents in promoting steroid hydroxylation in microsomes appeared to be related to their effectiveness in eliciting the spectral complex. Electron donors, substrates, and modifiers of cytochrome P-450 greatly diminished the magnitude of the spectral change. It is proposed that NaIO4, NaClO2, and organic hydroperoxides promote steroid hydroxylation by forming a transient ferryl ion (compound I) of cytochrome P-450 which may be the common intermediate hydroxylating species involved in hydroxylations catalyzed by cytochrome P-450.

Acetone↗
PubMed1975

Studies of the mode of action of erucic acid on heart metabolism.

The effects of erucic acid on the oxidative metabolism of rat-heart mitochondria have been investigated using intact animals, perfused beating heart, isolated mitochondria and mitochondrial extracts. Feeding rats with a diet containing erucic acid was found to lead to a diminished ability of the isolated heart mitochondria to oxidize various substrates, in accordance with previous reports (Houtsmuller et al., Biochim. Biophys. Acta 218 (1970) 564). This effect was almost pronounced with palmitylcarnitine as substrate, in which case the rate of oxidation was decreased by more than 50% at such a low erucic acid content in the diet as 1.4% given over 2-4 weeks. Oxidation of palmitylcarnitine was also found to be inhibited when erucylcarnitine was added to isolated heart mitochondria from control animals, in agreement with earlier observations (Christophersen and Bremer, FEBS Lett. 23 (1972) 230; Biochim. Biophys. Acta 280 (1972) 506). The inhibition was accompanied by a decrease in the rate and extent of reduction of mitochondrial flavoprotein. Experiments with perfused beating rat-heart likewise revealed an inhibition of flavoprotein reduction, as well as nicotinamide nucleotide reduction, when erucate was added to the perfusing medium of the beating heart respiring with oleate--but not with octanoate--as substrate. These data together with those earlier published in the literature indicate that erucic acid may interfere with the enzyme system involved in the mitochondrial oxidation of long-chain fatty acids, probably at the level of acyl-CoA dehydrogenase. Kinetic data supporting this conclusion, obtained with extracts of rat-heart mitochondria containing the acyl-CoA dehydrogenase and electron-transferring flavoprotein system, are presented. The possible implications of these results for the known effect of dietary erucic acid in causing an accumulation of fat in the heart are discussed.

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