Little is known about the impact of morphological disorders in distinct zones on metabolic zonation. It was described recently that periportal fibrosis did affect the expression of CYP proteins, a set of pericentrally located drug-metabolizing enzymes. Here, we investigated whether periportal steatosis might have a similar effect. Periportal steatosis was induced in C57BL6/J mice by feeding a high-fat diet with low methionine/choline content for either two or four weeks. Steatosis severity was quantified using image analysis. Triglycerides and CYP activity were quantified in photometric or fluorometric assay. The distribution of CYP3A4, CYP1A2, CYP2D6, and CYP2E1 was visualized by immunohistochemistry. Pharmacokinetic parameters of test drugs were determined after injecting a drug cocktail (caffeine, codeine, and midazolam). The dietary model resulted in moderate to severe mixed steatosis confined to periportal and midzonal areas. Periportal steatosis did not affect the zonal distribution of CYP expression but the activity of selected CYPs was associated with steatosis severity. Caffeine elimination was accelerated by microvesicular steatosis, whereas midazolam elimination was delayed in macrovesicular steatosis. In summary, periportal steatosis affected parameters of pericentrally located drug metabolism. This observation calls for further investigations of the highly complex interrelationship between steatosis and drug metabolism and underlying signaling mechanisms.

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Assignment of the absolute configuration of cyclic peptides frequently yields challenges, leaving one or more stereogenic centers unassigned due to small quantities of sample and the limited utility of Marfey’s or other methods for assigning amino or hydroxy acids. Here, we report isolation of kahalalide Y (1) from Bryopsis pennata for the first time; in addition, the application of a combination of molecular modeling and NOE distance constraint calculations was utilized to determine the conformation of 1 and the absolute configuration of the final stereogenic center of 1. Using the Schrödinger suite, the structure of 1 was sketched in Maestro and minimized using the OPLS2005 force field in Macromodel. A conformational search was performed separately for structures having R or S configuration at C-3 of the beta-hydroxy fatty acid subunit that completes the cyclic scaffold of 1, after which multiple minimizations for all generated conformers were carried out. The lowest energy conformers of R and S stereoisomers were then subjected to B3LYP geometry optimizations including solvent effects. The S stereoisomer was shown to be in excellent agreement with the NOE-derived distance constraints and hydrogen bonding stability studies.