Importance of the liver and the digestive tract in the formation of catecholamine conjugates
Shibata, O.; Morooka, H.; Hara, K.; Nakamura, H.; Fukuzaki, M.; Gotoh, Y.; Ozaki, M.
Masui. Japanese Journal of Anesthesiology 37(4): 428-433
1988
ISSN/ISBN: 0021-4892 PMID: 3398222 Document Number: 318531
A study was carried out on 55 patients from whom specimens of the liver, stomach and colon were obtained following exogenous administration of dopamine (DA), to determine the possible synthesis of catecholamine (CA) conjugate in those organs. The patients were divided into the dopamine-administered group (DA group) and the dopamine-non administered group (non-DA group). The DA and norepinephrine (NE) sulfoconjugate concentrations in the resected specimens were measured, and we attempted to determine the location of the conjugation of exogenously administered DA. In the non-DA group, the liver contained 27 .+-. 6 ng/g of DA and 9 .+-. 2 ng/g of DA conjugate. In the DA group, DA and DA conjugate concentrations in the plasma were 65 .+-. 6 ng/g and 50 .+-. 5 ng/g, while in the liver, the concentrations were 232 .+-. 42 ng/g and 112 .+-. 15 ng/g, respectively. Significant differences were observed between both the DA and DA conjugate in the plasma and those in the liver. When DA and NE conjugates were measured after dividing the stomach and colon into the mucosa and muscle layer, in the non-DA group, those conjugates were contained mainly in the mucosa. In the DA group, DA conjugate was increased in the mucosa than in the muscle layer of the stomach and colon. Therefore, CA conjugate is probably synthesized in the liver and mucosa of the digestive tract.