RT Journal Article SR Electronic T1 IMPORTANCE OF CYP2D3 IN POLYMORPHISM OF DIAZEPAM P-HYDROXYLATION IN RATS JF Drug Metabolism and Disposition JO Drug Metab Dispos FD American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics SP 1657 OP 1660 DO 10.1124/dmd.105.004242 VO 33 IS 11 A1 Noriaki Sakai A1 Konomu Saito A1 Hyung-Sub Kim A1 Akio Kazusaka A1 Mayumi Ishizuka A1 Yoshihiko Funae A1 Shoichi Fujita YR 2005 UL http://dmd.aspetjournals.org/content/33/11/1657.abstract AB 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. The American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics