Depression of Hepatic Microsomal Enzyme Systems by Lentinan in Mice

Studies were performed to determine the effects of an immunopotentiating agent, lentinan, on the hepatic drug-metabolizing enzymes in mice. Lentinan was injected twice a day for two days, and the enzyme activities were determined 12 hr after the last injection of lentinan. A lentinan dose of over 0.25 mg/kg was required to cause a significant decrease (20–40%) in the hepatic microsomal aminopyrine N-demethylase and aniline hydroxylase activities. The loss of drug-metabolizing activity by the treatment with lentinan agreed with the loss of cytochrome P-450 content in many cases. Strain and substrate differences concerning the effect of lentinan on the metabolism of drug were also observed. That is to say, the loss of cytochrome P-450 content by the treatment with lentinan was observed in the ddY, C57BL/6 and BDF1 strain mice, but was not observed in the DBA/2, C3H/He and C57BL/10 strain mice. The decrease in the activities of 7-ethoxycoumarin O-deethylase and biphenyl 2-hydroxylase by the treatment with lentinan was considerably less than that of aminopyrine N-demethylase and aniline hydroxylase in ddY mice.