Protein Information

Name CYP2E1
Synonyms CPE 1; Flavoprotein linked monooxygenase; Xenobiotic monooxygenase; Microsomal monooxygenase; CPE1; CYP2E; CYP2E1; CYP2E1 protein…

Compound Information

Name methylene chloride
CAS dichloromethane

Reference List

PubMed Abstract RScore(About this table)
17620348 Kim SN, Seo JY, Jung da W, Lee MY, Jung YS, Kim YC: Induction of hepatic CYP2E1 by a subtoxic dose of acetaminophen in rats: increase in dichloromethane metabolism and carboxyhemoglobin elevation. Drug Metab Dispos. 2007 Oct;35(10):1754-8. Epub 2007 Jul 9.

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7717874 Lehnebach A, Kuhn C, Pankow D: Dichloromethane as an inhibitor of cytochrome c oxidase in different tissues of rats. Arch Toxicol. 1995;69(3):180-4.


Based on the metabolism of dichloromethane (DCM) to carbon monoxide (CO), a process mediated by cytochrome P-4502E1 (CYP2E1), cytochrome c oxidase activity was determined in different tissues of rats after DCM exposure.
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20153349 Evans MV, Caldwell JC: Evaluation of two different metabolic hypotheses for dichloromethane toxicity using physiologically based pharmacokinetic modeling for in vivo inhalation gas uptake data exposure in female B6C3F1 mice. Toxicol Appl Pharmacol. 2010 Feb 10.

Dichloromethane (DCM, methylene chloride) is a lipophilic volatile compound readily absorbed and then metabolized to several metabolites that may lead to chronic toxicity in different target organs.
The second metabolic hypothesis describes only one pathway mediated by CYP2E1 that includes multiple binding sites.
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17177172 Kim SJ, Jung YS, Yoon MY, Kim YC: Comparative effects of dimethylsulfoxide on metabolism and toxicity of carbon tetrachloride and dichloromethane. J Appl Toxicol. 2007 Jan-Feb;27(1):25-31.


DMSO induces the hepatic metabolizing activity mediated by CYP2E1, but the presence of this solvent in the enzyme site may inhibit directly the enzymatic interaction with a substrate.
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15501612 Sweeney LM, Kirman CR, Morgott DA, Gargas ML: Estimation of interindividual variation in oxidative metabolism of dichloromethane in human volunteers. Toxicol Lett. 2004 Dec 30;154(3):201-16.


A comparison of the observed variation in V (maxC) values to other estimates of variability in the rate of oxidative metabolism and human CYP2E1 activity suggest a relatively narrow range in human hepatic activity toward DCM.
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8671747 Doherty AT, Ellard S, Parry EM, Parry JM: An investigation into the activation and deactivation of chlorinated hydrocarbons to genotoxins in metabolically competent human cells. Mutagenesis. 1996 May;11(3):247-74.

The human lymphoblastoid cell line AHH-1, with native cytochrome CYP1A1 activity, the MCL-5 cell line, which stably expresses cDNAs encoding human CYP1A2, 2A6, 3A4, 2E1 and microsomal epoxide hydrolase, and the h2E1 cell line, containing a cDNA for CYP2E1, were used in this study.
The MCL-5 and h2E1 cell lines have in addition shown the capacity to produce metabolites in the presence of methylene chloride, carbon tetrachloride, 1,2,3-trichloropropane, tetrachloroethylene, toluene and n-hexane, wich yield elevated micronucleus frequencies compared with the parental cell line AHH-1.
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