Sulfatase Subject

Figure 3.3 Average plasma tea catechin concentration vs. time profiles following an 800-mg dose of EGCG. A. Data obtained from plasma samples without subjecting to glucuronidase/sulfatase treatment. B. Data obtained from plasma samples treated with glucuronidase/sulfatase.

The liver, and also bacteria in the small and large intestine, can cause other structural modifications to bile acids as they undergo their entero-hepatic cycle. The formation of sulfate esters, already mentioned with respect to lithocholate in Section 4.2.1, is carried out primarily in the liver in man by a sulfotransferase (Lll). Other bile acids can also be sulfoconjugated to a small extent, mainly at the 3a-hydroxyl position. Bacteria, which have been isolated anaerobically from human feces, are known to possess bile acid sulfatase activity, which removes the 3a-sul te group of chenodeoxycholic and cholic acids (H24). The action of this bacterial enzyme probably explains why only trace amounts of sul ted bile acids, which are poorly absorbed in the intestine, are detected in the feces (12). Another type of bile acid conjugate, which has been identified in the urine of healthy subjects and patients with hepatobiliary disease, is the glucuronide (A7, S41). Both the liver and extrahepatic tissues, such as the kidney and small intestinal mucosa, are capable of glucuronidation of bile acids in man (M14). 

This would be analogous to the change that results from alkyl substitution that is, transition states become more associative in the continuum from monoesters to triesters. Although relatively few phosphatases have been subjected to serious scrutiny of their transition states, in the cases that have been reported, this prediction has not been borne out. The reactions catalyzed by AP proceeds through loose transition states that are not significantly altered from those in solution, both in its phosphatase and in its promiscuous sulfatase activities. " Results with A-phosphatase and with calcineurin, which both catalyze phosphoryl transfer to a metal-coordinated hydroxide nucleophile, also provide no evidence of a significantly different transition state. Protein tyrosine phosphatases (PTPs), which do not contain metal ion cofactors but have a conserved arginine residue and proceed via a phosphocysteine intermediate, similarly catalyze phosphoryl transfer via a transition state similar to the one in solution. ... 

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