The enzymatic conjugation of glutathione with bay-region diol-epoxides of benzo[a]pyrene, benz[a]anthracene and chrysene.

The kinetics of the enzymatic conjugation of glutathione (GSH) with the anti-diastereoisomers of trans-7,8-dihydroxy-9,10-epoxy-7,8,9,10- tetrahydrobenzo[a]pyrene (BPDE), trans-3,4-dihydroxy-1,2-epoxy-1,2,3, 4-tetrahydrobenz[a]anthracene (BADE) and trans-1,2- dihydroxy-3,4-epoxy-1,2,3,4-tetrahydrochrysene (CDE) catalyzed by transferase 4-4 from rat liver have been compared. When the concentration of these diol-epoxides was varied (using 2 mM GSH) the apparent Vmax values were 560, 2100 and 1500 nmol/mg/min for (+/-)-anti-BPDE, (+/-)-anti-BADE and (+/-)-anti-CDE, respectively, with corresponding apparent Km values of 11, 125 and 105 microM. The catalytic efficiency of transferase 4-4 in the GSH conjugation of (+/-)-anti-BADE and (+/-)-anti-CDE is thus approximately one-third of (+/-)-anti-BPDE (0.014 and 0.012 s-1 microM-1 respectively versus 0.042 s-1 microM-1). Similar non-linear Lineweaver-Burk plots were obtained with each diol-epoxide when the concentration of GSH was varied, and two apparent Km values of 0.02-0.04 and 0.4-0.9 mM GSH were estimated. The GSH-conjugates formed with the individual enantiomers of the racemic substrates used were resolved by h.p.l.c. The data indicate that with each diol-epoxide transferase 4-4 is highly selective (greater than or equal to 95%) towards the biologically most active (+)-enantiomer.