The involvement of intestinal monoamine oxidase in the transport and metabolism of tyramine.

The monoamine oxidase activities were found to be similar in the crypt and villous cells of the different regions of rat small intestine. In all cases the activity of the A-form of the enzyme constituted more than 70% of the total. A similar proportion of that form of the enzyme was found in homogenates of biopsy samples of human intestine. Studies with everted intestines showed that at concentrations above 10 microM over 70% of tyramine was deaminated during transport and the use of selective inhibitors confirmed the A-form of monoamine oxidase to play the dominant role in that process.