Rat hepatocytes cultured for 24h lose 60% of their NAD content. Treatment with nicotinamide prevents the loss of NAD as well as the previously reported loss of cytochrome P.450, suggesting a possible causal relationship. However, isonicotinamide also prevents the loss of cytochrome P-450, but does not increase the concentration of NAD, demonstrating that the ability of nicotinamide to maintain cytochrome P-450 is not apparently related to its effect on the NAD content of cultured hepatocytes.
The present work shows that the ability of pyridines e.g. metyrapone, to maintain the cytochrome P-450 concentration in cultured hepatocytes is not due to their ability to alter the 5-aminolaevulinate synthase and haem oxygenase activities of the hepatocytes. Since ligands such as metyrapone will prevent the cobalt-mediated loss of hepatic cytochrome P-450 in rats, the hypothesis that ligand formation is the mechanism of maintenance of the cytochrome in hepatocyte culture was tested. The observation that non-pyridine ligands will maintain the cytochrome P-450 concentration supports this hypothesis.
The loss of cytochrome P-450 in cultured rat hepatocytes can be prevented by substituted pyridines, especially isonicotinamide, 3-hydroxypyridine and metyrapone. The effect of these compounds is independent of protein synthesis, suggesting that they maintain pre-existing cytochrome P-450. The efficiency of pyridines at maintaining cytochrome P-450 in hepatocyte culture is highly correlated with their ability to bind to this cytochrome, suggesting that ligand formation with cytochrome P-450 prevents its accelerated turnover in liver cell culture.
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