Induction of digitoxigenin monodigitoxoside UDP-glucuronosyltransferase activity by glucocorticoids and other inducers of cytochrome P-450p in primary monolayer cultures of adult rat hepatocytes and in human liver.

We have recently proposed that glucocorticoids induce cytochrome P-450p, a liver microsomal hemoprotein originally isolated from rats treated with the antiglucocorticoid pregnenolone 16 alpha-carbonitrile (PCN), through a mechanism that involves a stereospecific recognition system clearly distinguishable from the classic glucocorticoid receptor (Schuetz, E. G., Wrighton, S. A., Barwick, J. L., and Guzelian, P. S. (1984) J. Biol. Chem. 259, 1999-2012). We now report that digitoxigenin monodigitoxoside UDP-glucuronosyltransferase (DIG UDP-glucuronosyltransferase), a liver microsomal enzyme activity induced by PCN in rats, is also inducible, as is P-450p, in primary monolayer cultures of adult rat hepatocytes. DIG UDP-glucuronosyltransferase activity closely resembled reported characteristics of induction of P-450p in its time course of induction, concentration-response relationships, exclusivity of induction by steroids with glucocorticoid properties, unusual rank order of potency of glucocorticoid agonists, unusually high ED50 for induction by glucocorticoids, enhanced induction rather than inhibition by anti-glucocorticoids in the presence of glucocorticoids, and finally, induction by nonsteroidal inducers of P-450p. DIG UDP-glucuronosyltransferase activity was also readily detected in human liver microsomes and was elevated in two patients who had received inducers of P-450p. We conclude that the liver enzymes controlled by the postulated PCN recognition system include not only P-450p but also one or more UDP-glucuronosyltransferases.