The Effects of Sulphydryl Reagents on the Binding and Mixed Function Oxidation of Hexobarbital in Rat Hepatic Microsomes

1. The effects of the sulphydryl reagents p-chloromercuribenzoate, N-ethylmaleimide and iodoacetamide on the binding spectrum, oxygen consumption and formation of a suspected substrate-cytochrome P-450-oxygen complex for hexobarbital in rat liver microsomes were investigated. 2. The oxygen consumption caused by hexobarbital oxidation was inhibited non-competitively by all three agents, with 50% inhibition at 4 times 10(-5) M for p-chloromercuribenzoate, 3-7 times 10(-4) M for N-ethylmaleimide and 1-9 times 10(-3) M for iodoacetamide. Cysteamine protected and at least partially reversed this inhibition. 3. p-chloromercuribenzoate inhibited the formation of the cytochrome P-450-substrate-oxyg…