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RESEARCH PRODUCT

DEVELOPMENTAL ASPECTS OF DRUG METABOLISM

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Publisher Summary This chapter discusses the developmental aspects of drug metabolism and those of other biological phenomena that are twofold. Development is described by examining various species of different levels of biological evolution or by studying the ontogenetic evolvement of the features in question in one animal species or groups of related species. A review on diene-organochlorine insecticides epitomizes the fact that insects, birds, and fish possess the enzymatic mechanisms for epoxidation of these insecticides to only a slightly less degree than do mammals. Thus, the ability to oxidize foreign compounds does not seem to be restricted to animals of higher organization, and consequently the key enzyme for hydroxylation, cytochrome P 450, has been found in insect microsomes, and binding spectra of pesticide substrates have been measured. The presents the ontogenetic approach, that is the examination of the development of drug metabolizing systems during the various phases of individual development and growth of mammals. It focuses on the perinatal aspects of pharmacology and presents a large body of experimental evidence for the fact that there is a development of the oxidative metabolism of drugs and other foreign compounds with increasing age.