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Toxicological Sciences 58, 3-4 (2000)
Copyright © 2000 by the Society of Toxicology
Profiles in Toxicology |
Cytochrome P450, the Oxygen-Activating Enzyme in Xenobiotic Metabolism
Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, College of Pharmacy, and Environmental and Occupational Health Science Institute, Rutgers University, 681 Frelinghuysen Road, Piscataway, New Jersey 08854
The concepts that underlie the role of oxygen in respiration have evolved over the last two centuries (Keilin, 1966
). Antoine Lavoisier (1743–1794) argued that respiration is the slow burning of carbon derived from the blood, which occurs in the lungs. During the process, oxygen is taken up and carbonic acid produced. Claude Bernard (1813–1878) suggested that respiration occurs by a process that he called "respiratory fermentation," i.e., enzymatically, within the tissues of the body. The idea that heme proteins played a role in respiration originated with the studies of C. S. McMunn (1852–1911), who examined specimens of tissue from almost every phylum, ranging from coelenterates to man, using a microspectroscope (McMunn, 1884). He
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