Major differences between lung, skin and liver in the microsomal metabolism of homologous series of resorufin and coumarin ethers.

Phenoxazone and a homologous series of its ethers (methoxy to octoxy plus benzyloxy), and coumarin and a series of its ethers (methoxy to propoxy), were metabolized by liver, lung and skin microsomes of normal adult female BALB/c mice. For each series of substrates, and with each tissue, clear structure-activity relationships were seen, relating metabolic activity to the length of the ether side-chain. With the coumarin series of substrates the structure-activity relationships were almost identical in the three tissues, with liver more active than lung and lung more active than skin. Liver, lung and skin microsomes each showed very different structure-activity relationships, however, for metabolism of the phenoxazone series of substrates. Benzyloxyphenoxazone was metabolized almost twice as fast in lung as in liver, but for the other phenoxazone substrates the activities were much greater in liver than in lung or skin. Liver, lung and skin microsomal propoxy- and benzyloxyphenoxazone dealkylase activities differed in their sensitivities to inhibition by metyrapone and alpha-naphthoflavone. The structure-activity relationship and inhibitor data for the phenoxazone substrates are consistent with a view that mouse lung and sking cyt. P-450 are predominantly similar to phenobarbitone-induced and 3-methylcholanthrene-induced forms of hepatic cyt. P-450 respectively. The results also show that the pattern of microsomal metabolism of xenobiotics in lung and skin cannot be reliably predicted from that in liver.