title: The pulmonary ethanol metabolizing system (PET).
abstract: Rat lung slices incubated in a Krebs ringer bicarbonate buffer respired at a rate of 0.62 mumoles/g lung X min. Respiration was inhibited by cyanide and stimulated by dinitrophenol. PET was insensitive to the action of pyrazole, cyanide or azide. Lung microsomes metabolized ethanol at rates which were less than 1% of PET. They showed an apparent Km for ethanol of the order of 10 mM and a Vmax of about 7 nmoles acetaldehyde/mg prot X min. Oxidation of ethanol by lung slices to acetaldehyde and CO2 was less than 0.3% and 1.15% than PET, respectively. Chromatographic determination of the products of ethanol metabolism by lung slices showed that a metabolite similar to glucuronic acid was formed. It is concluded that PET is a nonoxidative process which from the evidence presented in this work, would seem to involve the formation of ethyl glucuronide.
mesh_terms: D000079:Acetaldehyde / Q000378:metabolism; D000429:Alcohol Oxidoreductases / Q000378:metabolism; D000818:Animals; D000963:Antimetabolites / Q000494:pharmacology; D000431:Ethanol / Q000378:metabolism*; D005965:Glucuronates / Q000378:metabolism; D066298:In Vitro Techniques; D008168:Lung / Q000378:metabolism*; D008297:Male; D008861:Microsomes / Q000378:metabolism; D010084:Oxidation-Reduction; D010101:Oxygen Consumption / Q000187:drug effects; D051381:Rats; D011919:Rats, Inbred Strains; D013045:Species Specificity
chemical_list: D000963:Antimetabolites; D005965:Glucuronates; D000431:Ethanol; D000429:Alcohol Oxidoreductases; D000079:Acetaldehyde