Detoxification sulfhydryl compounds

Conjugation with sulfhydryl groups appears to be an important detoxification process for mctin l acrylate m the guinea-pig. The thioethers were identified as A -acct l-S -(2-carboxyethyl)-L-cysteine and the corresponding monomethyl ester, with a ratio between the two metabolites of 20 1. In male rats exposed to metliyl acrylate by inhalation, depletion of nonprotein sulfhydryl compounds was most pronounced in the lung, compared to liver, kidney and blood. After administration of methyl acrylate to Wistar rats, no hydroxymercapturic acid that might be derived from the epoxide of methyl acrylate was detected. It seems unlikely, therefore, that epoxidation of the acrylic esters occurs in vivo (lARC, 1986). 

Brock N, Pohl J, Stekar J. 1981. Detoxification of urotoxic oxazaphosphorines by sulfhydryl compounds. J Cancer Res Clin Oncol 100 311-320. 

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