Kinetics of conjugation and oxidation of nitrobenzyl alcohols by rat hepatic enzymes.

Previous work has suggested that quantitative differences in the in vitro and in vivo metabolism of mononitrotoluene isomers are a result of differences in the hepatic conjugation and oxidation of the first metabolic intermediates, the mononitrobenzyl alcohols. We have determined the steady-state kinetic parameters, Vmax, Km and V/K, for the metabolism of the nitrobenzyl alcohols by rat hepatic alcohol dehydrogenase, glucuronyltransferase, and sulfotransferase. 3-Nitrobenzyl alcohol was the best substrate for cytosolic alcohol dehydrogenase (Vmax = 1.48 nmoles/min/mg protein, V/K = 3.15 X 10(-3) nmoles/min/mg protein/microM, Km = 503 microM). Vmax and Km values for 4-nitrobenzyl alcohol were similar, but V/K was about 60% of that for 3-nitrobenzyl alcohol. 2-Nitrobenzyl alcohol was not metabolized by the alcohol dehydrogenase preparation used here, but it was metabolized to 2-nitrobenzoic acid by a rat liver mitochondrial preparation. 2-Nitrobenzyl alcohol was the best substrate for microsomal glucuronyltransferase (Vmax = 3.59 nmoles/min/mg protein, V/K = 11.28 X 10(-3) nmoles/min/mg protein/microM, Km = 373 microM). The Vmax for 3-nitrobenzyl alcohol was similar, but the V/K was about half and the Km was about twice that for 2-nitrobenzyl alcohol. The Vmax for 4-nitrobenzyl alcohol was about 40% and the V/K was about half that for 2-nitrobenzyl alcohol. The best substrate for cytosolic sulfotransferase was 4-nitrobenzyl alcohol (Vmax = 1.69 nmoles/min/mg protein, V/K = 37.21 X 10(-3) nmoles/min/mg protein/microM, Km = 48 microM). The Vmax values for the other two benzyl alcohols were similar, but the V/K and Km values were about 11 and 400%, respectively, of those for 4-nitrobenzyl alcohol. These data are in qualitative agreement with results obtained when the nitrobenzyl alcohols were incubated with isolated hepatocytes, but they do not allow quantitative modeling of the data from hepatocytes.