Measurement of EROD activity: caution on spectral properties of standards used

The activity of the enzyme 7-ethoxy-resorufin- O-deethylase (EROD) has been extensively used in biomonitoring studies for more than a decade. Although the analytical procedure is simple, it is often poorly characterized. In this study spectral properties of particular standard compounds used to measure EROD activity (ethoxyresorufin and resorufin, standards from Molecular Probes) were tested in order to optimize excitation and emission wavelengths to be used in the fluorimetric assay of EROD activity. The optimal excitation wavelength for the detection of resorufin was 560 nm. At this wavelength the excitation represents only 37% of its maximum level for ethoxyresorufin, while it represents 86% for resorufin. This allows discrimination between the fluorescence emitted by both standards, favoring the formed resorufin. Our results demonstrate that any analytical work using spectrofluorometry to measure EROD activity should be preceded by precise determination of the spectral characteristics of each set of standards used.