Abstract

Denopamine is one of the oral β₁-adrenoceptor-selective partial agonists. Denopamine glucuronide is the most abundant metabolite in human, rat, and dog urine when administered orally. Species differences in denopamine glucuronidation were investigated with liver microsomes obtained from humans and experimental animals. In rat and rabbit, only the phenolic glucuronide was detected, whereas in dog and monkey, not only the phenolic glucuronide but also the alcoholic glucuronide was found. In contrast, in humans, the alcoholic glucuronide was detected exclusively. The kinetics of denopamine glucuronidation in human liver microsomes showed a typical Michaelis-Menten plot. The K_m and V_max values accounted for 2.87 ± 0.17 mM and 7.29 ± 0.23 nmol/min/mg protein, respectively. With the assessment of denopamine glucuronide formation across a panel of recombinant UDP-glucuronosyltransferase (UGT) isoforms (UGT1A1, UGT1A3, UGT1A4, UGT1A6, UGT1A7, UGT1A8, UGT1A9, UGT1A10, UGT2B4, UGT2B7, UGT2B15, and UGT2B17), only UGT2B7 exhibited high denopamine glucuronosyltransferase activity. The K_m value of denopamine glucuronidation in recombinant UGT2B7 microsomes was close to those in human liver and jejunum microsomes. The formation of denopamine glucuronidation by human liver, jejunum, and recombinant UGT2B7 microsomes was effectively inhibited by diclofenac, a known substrate for UGT2B7. The denopamine glucuronidation activities in seven human liver microsomes were significantly correlated with diclofenac glucuronidation activities (r² = 0.685, p < 0.05). These results demonstrate that the denopamine glucuronidation in human liver and intestine is mainly catalyzed by UGT2B7 and that glucuronidation of the alcoholic hydroxyl group, but not the phenolic hydroxyl group, occurs regioselectively in humans.