Sulfate Conjugation of Monoamines in Human Brain: Purification and Some Properties of an Arylamine Sulfotransferase from Cerebral Cortex

An arylamine sulfotransferase (PST-M) from human brain cortex that is involved in the formation of O-sulfate esters of monoamines has been purified 272-fold by ammonium sulfate fractionation, gel filtration, DEAE-cellulose ion-exchange chromatography, chromatofocussing, and hydroxyapatite chromatography. A molecular weight of 62,000, pK of pH 5.8, and an optimum pH for the reaction at 7.8-8.0 with respect to tyramines have been determined. This enzyme possesses an extremely high affinity for dopamine and m-tyramine based on the low Km values and is moderately active toward noradrenaline and p-tyramine. Serotonin is a poor substrate. In contrast, another sulfotransferase, PST-P, which has been separated from PST-M and partially purified, exhibited a very high affinity for phenol and nitrophenols but was inactive toward the amine sulfate acceptors. In the human brain the specific activity toward dopamine as well as the ratio of activity toward dopamine/phenol was considerably higher than those for rat, hog, and bovine brains.