| Abstract: | Porcine and rat microsomal stearyl-CoA desaturases require reduced pyridine nucleotide and oxygen, are cyanide sensitive, and are insensitive to carbon monoxide. The Km for stearyl-CoA is somewhat larger for liver than for the adipose desaturases, but, in general, assay conditions are quite similar. Adipose tissue microsomes contain cytochromes b5 and P-450, as well as the NADH- and NADPH-specific cytochrome reductases. Compared to liver, the specific contents and activities of electron carriers are much lower in adipose tissue, and activities of 4-methyl sterol oxidase of cholesterol biosynthesis, as well as the cytochrome P-450-dependent aminopyrene demethylase and benzypyrene hydroxylase, are negligible in adipose tissue microsomes. Furthermore, unlike hepatic desaturase, administration of insulin stimulates the adipose desaturase 3-fold without affecting either the amounts or activities of microsomal oxidation-reduction proteins; the changes in desaturase activities produced either by altering dietary fat or by fasting and/or fasting followed by refeeding are, in general, both more extensive and more permanent in adipose compared to liver microsomes. The effects produced by isotopic hydrogen substitution both in stearyl-CoA and in the medium (2H2O) are similar with microsomes from both tissues. The rate-determining step of desaturase appears to be similar in both tissues. The primary isotope effect, k H/Tr, observed with 9,10-3H2]stearyl-CoA is relatively small, 2.88. Since little, if any, primary isotope effect is associated with methyl sterol oxidase, these two mixed function oxidases of biosynthetic processes also appear to share this property in common. |
