By
C.R. Jefcoate, Department of Pharmacology and Environmental Toxicology Center, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI, USA
Description
Research on the cytochrome P450 family of genes has traditionally been dominated by forms participating in drug metabolism. This has occurred
in spite of early discovery of steroid hydroxy lase P450 cytochromes in the adrenal gland. More recently, contributions on the characterization
and regulation of P450 cytochromes involved in biosynthetic reactions have been found at the international meetings on cytochrome P450
and in the several books on the field. Key recognition that P450 cytochromes should be recognized in a physiological context was provided
by an international meeting in Jerusalem in 1991 and the subsequent publication of the proceedings in the
Journal of Steroid Biochemistry
and Molecular Biology (43, number 8, 92). Like this meeting, this book seeks to place equal weight on the physiological processes
that are controlled by the products of reactions at usually very selective cytochrome P450 forms. Each of the authors was asked to discuss
the molecular regulation of these P450 forms. Each of the authors was asked to discuss the molecular regulation of these P450 forms in
the light of these physiological processes. In some cases the physiological role of the cytochrome P450 and even the natural substrate
are unresolved, but a pattern of strong endocrine regulation is indicative of a hidden function. As more and more low abundance P450
genes are uncovered, the need to address potential physiological activities becomes more pressing. It is almost infinitely more difficult
to identify a physiological substrate than to clone a new form.
Included in series
Advances in Molecular and Cell Biology
