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RESEARCH PRODUCT

INTERINDIVIDUAL VARIATIONS OF EPOXIDE HYDRATASE ACTIVITY IN HUMAN LIVER AND LUNG BIOPSIES, LYMPHOCYTES AND FIBROBLAST CULTURES

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Publisher Summary Most pharmaceuticals, toxic compounds, mutagens, and carcinogens undergo metabolism in the human body. Differences in drug metabolizing enzymes cause differences in susceptibility towards effects or side effects of these compounds. This chapter presents a comparison of epoxide hydratase (EH) activity in human individuals. Activities were measured in biopsy samples of liver, which is the main site of drug metabolism, and of lung, which is an organ that is continually exposed to potential enzyme inducers and to carcinogenic compounds. EH was studied in native lymphocytes, cultured lymphocytes, and fibroblasts in which environmental influences can be controlled and the genetic differences can be discriminated from environmental effects. The chapter explains that EH activity varies from organ to organ and, in some organs, from individual to individual. This is apparent in liver and lung, which are organs heavily exposed to foreign compounds. The much smaller variation in control liver and in cells in culture under uniform environmental conditions indicates that epigenetic factors are essential for the differences.