The occurance of carbonyl reduction in continuous cell lines emphasizes the essentiality of this metabolic pathway

AbstractUsing the ketone compound metyrapone (MPON) as a substrate for carbonyl reduction it has been verified for the first time that various permanent cell lines in culture express carbonyl reducing activity. This is even true for the dedifferentiated and fibroblasloid cell line V79, emphasizing the essentiality of this metabolic pathway. MPON reducing enzyme activities are located in the endoplasmic reticulum as well as in the cytoplasm of the cells. Compared to MPON-reductase in rat liver microsomes, no immunological homology to microsomal C2REV7 rat liver hepatoma cell MPON-reductase could be detected, indicating differences in antigenic determinants between the enzymes of the solid organ and respective cells in continuous culture