The effect of steroids and nucleotides on solubilized bilirubin uridine diphosphate glucuronyltransferase

1. It was confirmed that bilirubin glucuronyltransferase can be obtained in solubilized form from rat liver microsomes. 2. Michaelis–Menten kinetics were not followed by the enzyme with bilirubin as substrate when the bilirubin/albumin ratio was varied. High concentrations of bilirubin were inhibitory. 3. The Km for UDP-glucuronic acid at the optimum bilirubin concentration was 0.46mm. 4. Low concentrations of Ca2+ were inhibitory in the absence of Mg2+ but stimulatory in its presence; the converse applied for EDTA. 5. UDP-N-acetylglucosamine and UDP-glucose enhanced conjugation by untreated, but not by solubilized microsomes. 6. The apparent 9.5-fold increase in activity after solubilization was probably due to the absence of UDP-glucuronic acid pyrophosphatase activity in the solubilized preparation. 7. The activation of solubilized enzyme activity by ATP was considered to be a result of chelation of inhibitory metal ions. 8. The solubilized enzyme activity was inhibited by UMP and UDP. The effect of UMP was not competitive with respect to UDP-glucuronic acid. 9. A number of steroids inhibited the solubilized enzyme activity. The competitive effects of stilboestrol, oestrone sulphate and 3β-hydroxyandrost-5-en-17-one, with respect to UDP-glucuronic acid, may be explained on an allosteric basis.