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Xenobiotica
the fate of foreign compounds in biological systems
Volume 16, 1986 - Issue 7
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Original Article

N-Methylation and quaternization of pyridine in vitro by rabbit lung, liver and kidney N-methyltransferases: an S-adenosy1-L-methioninedependent reaction

, , , &
Pages 645-650 | Received 16 Jul 1985, Accepted 24 Jan 1986, Published online: 30 Sep 2009
 

Abstract

1. The N-methylation of pyridine in vitro, using dialysed and undialysed hepatic, pulmonary, renal and brain preparations from rabbits, is described.

2. Analysis of the quaternary metabolite, N-methylpyridinium ion, was carried out by selective ion-pair extraction and cation-exchange high-performance liquid chromatography (h.p.l.c.) using a u.v. detector, and also by direct cation-exchange h.p.l.c. of incubates containing S-adenosyl-L-[methyl-3H]methionine using a flow-through radioactivity detector.

3. N-Methylation of pyridine could be readily demonstrated with dialysed homogenates, 9000 g and 100 000g supernatant fractions from lung, kidney and liver, but not with any of the brain preparations.

4. ‘Pyridine N-methyltransferase’ activity was confined to the tissue cytosol, and this enzyme utilized S-adenosyl-L-methionine as the methyl donor.

5. Since the activity of the ‘pyridine N-methyltransferase’ in rabbit tissues is increased many fold by dialysis, this enzyme, in common with most other N-methylating enzymes, is subject to inhibition by a low-molecular-weight endogenous substance.

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