Abstract
Diazepam was metabolized to three primary metabolites, 3-hydroxy-diazepam, N-desmethyl-diazepam, and p-hydroxy-diazepam. Our previous studies reported metabolic position-specific inter- or intrastrain differences in diazepam metabolism among Sprague-Dawley, Brown Norway, Dark Agouti, and Wistar rats. Especially, there were marked (∼300 fold) inter- or intrastrain differences in diazepam p-hydroxylation activity at low concentration of substrate. In this study, we investigated the enzyme that catalyzes diazepam p-hydroxylation. The activity toward diazepam p-hydroxylation was inhibited by anti-cytochrome P450 2D (CYP2D) antibody, suggesting that this activity was catalyzed by CYP2D isoforms. Comparing the expression levels of the CYP2D subfamily in liver microsomes from various strains of rats using anti-CYP2D2 antibody, we found that there was a band of protein that was consistent with the phenotype of diazepam p-hydroxylation. N-terminal amino acid sequences of the specific protein exactly corresponded to those of CYP2D3, indicating that CYP2D3 might be involved in diazepam p-hydroxylation. Moreover, using rat CYP2D isoforms expressed in yeast, we tested CYP2Ds to catalyze diazepam p-hydroxylation. CYP2D1 and CYP2D2 practically did not participate in diazepam metabolism. On the other hand, diazepam p-hydroxylation was catalyzed by CYP2D3. CYP2D4 had high activity toward diazepam N-desmethylation, but not p-hydroxylation. In conclusion, the polymorphic expression of CYP2D3 caused the inter- or intrastrain differences in diazepam p-hydroxylation among rat strains or individuals.
Footnotes
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This study was supported by Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research from the Japanese Ministry of Education, Science, Sports, Culture and Technology to S.F. (Grants 15201009) and from the Ministry of Health and Welfare of Japan.
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Article, publication date, and citation information can be found at http://dmd.aspetjournals.org.
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doi:10.1124/dmd.105.004242.
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ABBREVIATIONS: P450, cytochrome P450; SD, Sprague-Dawley; BN, Brown Norway; DA, Dark Agouti; EM, extensive metabolizer; PM, poor metabolizer; EM-W, EM from Wistar rats; PM-W, PM from Wistar rats; pEM, EM in diazepam p-hydroxylation; pPM, PM in diazepam p-hydroxylation; PAGE, polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis; PVDF, polyvinylidene difluoride.
- Received February 13, 2005.
- Accepted August 4, 2005.
- The American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics
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