The stoichiometry of the cytochrome P-450-catalyzed metabolism of methoxyflurane and benzphetamine in the presence and absence of cytochrome b5.

The complete stoichiometry of the metabolism of the cytochrome b5 (cyt b5)-requiring substrate, methoxyflurane, by purified cytochrome P-450 2B4 was compared to that of another substrate, benzphetamine, which does not require cyt b5 for its metabolism. Cyt b5 invariably improved the efficiency of product formation. That is, in the presence of cyt b5 a greater percentage of the reducing equivalents from NADPH were utilized to generate substrate metabolites, primarily at the expense of the side product, superoxide. With methoxyflurane, cyt b5 addition always resulted in an increased rate of product formation, while with benzphetamine the rate of product formation remained unchanged, increased or decreased. The apparently contradictory observations of increased reaction efficiency but decrease in total product formation for benzphetamine can be explained by a second effect of cyt b5. Under some experimental conditions cyt b5 inhibits total NADPH consumption. Whether stimulation, inhibition, or no change in product formation is observed in the presence of cyt b5 depends on the net effect of the stimulatory and inhibitory effects of cyt b5. When total NADPH consumption is inhibited by cyt b5, the rapidly metabolized, highly coupled (approximately equal to 50%) substrate, benzphetamine, undergoes a net decrease in metabolism not counterbalanced by the increase in the efficiency (2-20%) of the reaction. In contrast, in the presence of the slowly metabolized, poorly coupled (approximately equal to 0.5-3%) substrate, methoxyflurane, inhibition of total NADPH consumption by cyt b5 was never sufficient to overcome the stimulation of product formation due to an increase in efficiency of the reaction.