• Korean Journal of Pharmacognosy
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• v.36 no.2 s.141
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• pp.81-87
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• 2005

The effects of the DWP-04 [DDB:selenium yeast:glutathione (31.1 : 6.8 : 62.1 (w/w%)] on acetaminophen detoxification enzyme system were studied in rats. Treatment with DWP-04 was prevented againt acetaminophen-induiced hepatotoxicity in rat as evidenced by the decreased formation of lipid peroxide. Effect of DWP-04 on the activities of free radical-generating enzymes, free radical scavenging enzymes and glutathione-related enzymes as well as detoxification mechanism of DWP-04 against acetaminophen-treated was investigated in rat. Activities of cytochrome p450, cytochrome b5, aminopyrine demethylase and aniline hydroxylase as free radical-generating enzymes activities were decreased by the treatment with DWP-04 against acetaminophen treated. Although acetaminophen-induced hepatotoxicity results in the significantly decrease in the level of hepatic glutathione and activities of glutathine S-transferase, quinone reductase, glutathione reductase and ${\gamma}-glutamyl-$cysteine synthetase, these decreasing effects were markedly lowered in the DWP-04-treated rat. Therefore, it was concluded that the mechanism for the observed preventive effect of DWP-04 against the acetaminophen-induced hepatotoxicity was associated with the decreased activities in the free radical-generating enzyme system.

• Preventive Nutrition and Food Science
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.239-244
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• 2003

Recently, we reported (J Korean Soc Food Sci Nutr, 31(3): 516-520, 2002) that Semisulcospira libertina (Marsh Snail) pretreatment has a hepatoprotective effect on $CCl_4$-induced liver damage in rats. The purpose of this study was to investigate the possible mechanisms of hepatoprotection by S. libertina (SL) on liver injury induced by acetaminophen (AA). Male ICR mice were pretreated with dehydrated powder of SL once daily for three consecutive days, given a single toxic dose of AA (450 mg/kg) and liver function determined 24 h later. Liver damage was assessed by quantifying serum alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST) and sorbitol dehydrogenase (SDH) activities, and by measuring hepatic lipid peroxidation. To confirm possible mechanism(s), the content of hepatic glutathione (GSH) and gene expression of tumor necrosis factor a (TNF $\alpha$) mRNA by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RTPCR) were also measured. Pretreatment with SL dramatically lowered AA-elevated ALT, AST and SDH activities. SL pretreatment decreased AA-produced lipid peroxidation by 11% and restored the AA-depleted hepatic GSH by 27%. Furthermore, SL markedly suppressed the expression of TNF $\alpha$ mRNA induced by AA. Our findings revealed that the possible hepatoprotective mechanisms of SL could be attributed, at least in part, to the glutathione-mediated detoxification as well as the regulation of TNF $\alpha$ mRNA expression.

• Archives of Pharmacal Research
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• v.27 no.5
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• pp.547-553
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• 2004

The pyrrolizidine alkaloids (PAs), contained in a number of traditional remedies in Africa and Asia, show wide variations in metabolism between animal species but little work has been done to investigate differences between animal strains. The metabolism of the PA senecionine (SN) in Fischer 344 (F344) rats has been studied in order to compare to that found in the previously investigated Sprague-Dawley (SO) rats (Drug Metab. Dispos. 17: 387, 1989). There was no difference in the formation of ($\pm$) 6,7-dihydro-7-hydroxy-1-hydroxymethyl-5H-pyrrolizine (DHP, bioactivation) by hepatic microsomes from either sex of SO and F344 rats. However, hepatic microsomes from male and female F344 rats had greater activity in the Noxidation (detoxication) of SN by 88% and 180%, respectively, when compared to that of male and female SD rats. Experiments conducted at various pH showed an optimum pH of 8.5, the optimal pH for flavin-containing monooxygenase (FMO), for SN N-oxidation by hepatic microsomes from F344 females. In F344 males, however, a bimodal pattern was obtained with activity peaks at pH 7.6 and 8.5 reflecting the possible involvement of both cytochrome P450 (CYP) and FMO. Use of specific inhibitors (SKF525A, 1-benzylimidazole and methimazole) showed that the N-oxide of SN was primarily produced by FMO in both sexes of F344 rats. In contrast, SN N-oxide formation is known to be catalyzed mainly by CYP2C11 rather than FMO in SD rats. This study, therefore, demonstrated that there were substantial differences in the formation of SN N-oxide by hepatic microsomes from F344 and SD rats and that this detoxification is catalyzed primarily by two different enzymes in the two rat strains. These findings suggest that significant variations in PA biotransformation can exist between different animal strains.

• Journal of Ginseng Research
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.123-126
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• 1993

Effects of chronic administration of ginseng extracts (30 or 150 mg/kg/day for 52 days, p.o.) to mice on the activities of DT-diaphorase and glutathione S-transferase (GST) in the liver and the brain were studied. The DT-diaphorase activity in the liver was increased over 2-fold at the dose of both 30 and 150 mg/kg/day, while there was no change in the activity of the enzyme in the brain. The GST activity in the liver was increased in a dose-dependent fashion up to 142% of the control value at the dose of 150 mg/kg/day. while there was no change in the activity of the enzyme in the brain. The ginseng-induced increase in the activities of these hepatic phase II drug-metabolizing enzymes which are involved in the detoxification of carcinogens, is suggested to underlie, at least in part, the anticarcinogenic activity of Panax ginseng.

• Archives of Pharmacal Research
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• v.18 no.5
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• pp.320-324
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• 1995

Pretreatment of Glycyrrhizae Radix(GR) to male Sprague-Dawley rats was demonstrated to increase excretion of acetaminophen-glucuronide ocnjugate when bile nad urine were assayed after administration of acetaminophen. In order to study the effect of GR on the glucuronidation in rats, we examined enzymatic activities of hepatic UDP-glucuronosyl-transferases (UDP-GT1 and UDP-GT2) and intracellular concentrations of hepatic UDP-glucuronic acid (UDP-GA), upon the administration of GR (1 g/kg body weight, p.o.) or glycyrrhizin (23 mg/kg body weight, p.o.) a major component of GR, for 6 days. GR and glycyrrhizin caused increases in specific activities of UDP-GT2 111% and 96% respectively. Specific activity of UDP-GT1 was increased 25% by GR treatment whereas it was not significantly increased by glycyrrhizin. Concentrations of UDP-GA were increased 257% by GR and 484% by glycyrrhizin. These data indicate that GR activated glucuronidation and thus suggest the possibility that GR may influence detoxification of xenobiotics in rat liver.

• Toxicological Research
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.51-59
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• 1990

Effects of altering hepatic mixed-function oxidase (MFO) enzyme activities on the metabolism and acute toxicity of parathio were investigated in adult female rats. In vitro hepatic metabolism of parathion to paraoxon was increased by phenobarbital pretreatment (50 mg/kg/day, ip, for 4 consecutive days) and SKF 525-A (50 mg/kg, ip, 1 hr prior to sacrifice) decreased paraoxon formation indicating that phenobarbital induces that form(s) of cytochrome P-450 catalyzing conversion of parathion to paraoxon. Degradation of paraoxon to p-nitrophenol was increased by phenobarbital pretreatment, but not affected by SKF 525-A suggesting that MFO activities play only a minor role in the detoxification of the active metabolite of this insecticide. The phenobarbital-induced increase in paraoxon formation was partially antagonized by SKF 525-A. Significant activity for both parathion activation and paraoxon degradation was also observed in the lung preparation, however, this extrahepatic parathion and paraoxon metabolizing activity was not induced by phenobarbital or inhibited by SKF 525-A pretreatment. Phenobarbital pretreatment increased paraoxon level in livers of rats when measured 3 hr following parathion injection (2 mg/kg, ip). SKF 525-A did not alter parathion or paraoxon levels in brain, blood and liver. Phenobarbital pretreatment decreased the toxicity of parathion (4mg/kg, ip) or paraoxon (1.5 mg/kg, ip) as determined by decreases in lethality and inhibition of brain and lung acetylcholinesterases. An additional SKF 525-A treatment failed to decrease the protective effects of phenobarbital against parathion or paraoxon toxicity. These results suggest that some unknown factors other than hepatic MFO induction are involved in the protective action of phenobarbital against parathion and paraoxon toxicity.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Applied Pharmacology
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• 1993.04a
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• pp.71-71
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• 1993

Carboxylesterase is widely distributed in the tissues of vertebrates, insects, plants and mycobacteria. Among various tissues of animals and humans, the highest esterase activity with various substrates is found in the liver. Kidney has moderate carboxylesterase activity in the proximal tubules. Considerable esterase activity is also found in the small intestine epithet elial cells and serum of mammals. Besides these tissues, carboxylesterase has been found in the lung, testis, adipose tissue, nasal mucosa and even in the central nervous system. Hepatic microsomal carboxylesterase catalyzes the hydrolysis of a wide variety of endogenous and exogenous compounds such as carboxylester, thioester and aromatic amide. Since carboxylesterases are important for metabolic activation of prodrugs and detoxification of xenobiotics, differences in substrate specificity and immunological properties of this enzyme are important in connection with choosing a suitable laboratory animal for the evaluation of biotransformation and toxicity of drugs. On the other hand, liver, kidney, intestine and serum were found to contain multiple forms of carboxylesterases in animal species and humans. In fact, we have purified more than fifteen isoforms of carboxylesterases from microsomes of liver, kidney and intestinal mucosa of nine animal species and humans. and characteristics of these isoforms were compared each other in terms of their physical and immunochemical properties. On the other hand, we have reported that hepatic microsomal carboxylesterases are induced by many exogenous compounds such as phenobarbital, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, Aroclor 1254, aminopyrine and clofibrate. Later, we showed that some isoforms of hepatic carboxylesterase were induced by glucocorticoids such as dexamethasone and 16 ${\alpha}$-carbonitrile, but other isoforms were rather inhibited by these compounds. These findings indicate that involvement of carboxylesterases in the metabolism and toxicity of drugs should be explained by the isoforms involved. Since 1991, we have carried out detailed research investigating the types of carboxylesterases involved in the metabolic activation of CPT-11, a derivative of camptothecin, to the active metabolite, SN-38. The results obtained strongly suggest that some isoforms of carboxylesterase of liver microsomes and intestinal mucosal membrane are exclusively involved in CPT-11 metabolism. In this symposium, the properties of carboxylesterase isoforms purified from liver, kidney and intestine of animal species and humans are outlined. In addition, metabolism of CPT-11, a novel antitumor agent, by carboxylesterases in relation to the effectiveness will also be discussed.

• Journal of the East Asian Society of Dietary Life
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• v.14 no.6
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• pp.640-645
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• 2004

An eight-week-old male ICR mouse, which was induced with acute alcohol and sub-acute alcohol poisoning condition, was administered with bohee tea(Camelia sinensis L) extract. Under the inducement of the sub-acute alcohol poisoning condition, no considerable differences could be found in the blood alcohol concentration of the positive control group and the bohee tea group(p<0.05). The GOT activity of the three groups: bohee tea, Drink, and Alcodex decreased than that of the normal control group(9.064±4.687 unit)(p<0.05). In addition, the blood GOT activity of the dark green tea group dropped by 81.44% compared with that of the positive control group. On the other hand, the blood GTP activity of the bohee tea group decreased by 5.2% as opposed to that of the positive control and the Drink that decreased by 7.5% as opposed to that of the positive control. The hepatic ADH activity of the bohee tea increased by 22.7%, as opposed to that of the positive control group. The Drink, however, had an increase rate of 33.6%. In the case of the hepatic ALDH activity of the liver, no significant differences were ever recorded among all groups, except for the positive control group. Due to an intake of bohee tea extract, the hepatic ALDH activity decreased by 77.27% which could not be seen in the positive control group. However, Drink and A1codex had a decrease could be seen(p<0.05).

• Journal of the East Asian Society of Dietary Life
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• v.14 no.6
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• pp.634-639
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• 2004

An eight-week-old male ICR mouse, which was induced with acute alcohol and sub-acute alcohol poisoning condition, was administered with bohee tea(Camelia sinensis L) extract. After oral administration of bohee tea and inducement of acute alcohol poisoning condition, the mouses blood alcohol concentration became as low as that of the normal control group. Its decrease rate was 87.26%, in comparison with that of the positive control group. Moreover, its blood GOT activity decreased with a rate of 93.1 % until it reached the normal level, as opposed to that of the positive control group. In addition, the GOT activity, despite rising after the alcohol intake, decreased(p<0.05) significantly after administration of each sample and reached the normal level. The bohee tea group experienced a significant decrease in the GOT activity, compared with the A1codex group and the Drink group. The GPT activity of the Alcodex group decreased by 11 % compared with that of the positive control group. The CTP activity of the bohee tea group decreased by 8.2%, while that of the Drink group decreased by 6.5%(P<0.05). However, there were no significant differences between the results in the control group and those of the test group. The bohee tea group's hepatic ADH activity increased by 22.7% compared with that of the positive control group. On the other hand, the hepatic ADH activity of the Drink group increased by 33.6% while that of the A1codex group increased by 20.4%. On the contrary, the bohee tea extract, the hepatic ALDH did not manifest any significant difference as compared with the normal control group. However, its decrease rate was about 16.67% as compared with that of the positive control group. The Drink group, meanwhile, obtained a decrease rate of about 21.59%.

• Biomolecules & Therapeutics
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.185-188
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• 2004

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effect of cigarette smoke condensate (CSC) on toxification/detoxification metabolic pathway in primary cultured rat hepatocytes. We measured the activities of cytochrome P450 monooxygenases (CYP450s) and UDP-glucuronyltransferase, sulfotransferase and glutathione-S-transferase in CSC-treated rat hepatocytes. CSC significantly increased the activities of hepatic CYP4501A1 and CYP4501A2 to 7.5 fold and 1.6 fold respectively, compared with control level. However, CSC did not affect the activities of conjugation enzymes. We a1so examined if treatment of CSC could change thc cytotoxicity of acetaminophen (AA) through modulation of metabolizing enzymes. In rat hepatocytes, pretreatment with CSC potentiated the cytotoxicity of AA. This result indicates that potentiation of AA toxicity by CSC pretreatment may be related to induction of CYP4501A1 and CYP4501A2.