Non-michaelian behavior of 5 alpha-reductase in human prostate

An in-depth analysis of the kinetics of 5 alpha-reductase in human prostatic tissue gave findings inconsistent with the claim that the enzyme is michaelian. In both hyperplastic and malignant tissue, the time-course of the conversion of testosterone (T) into dihydrotestosterone (DHT) was non-linear under conditions ensuring less than 15% conversion of substrate and cofactor. An initial rapid phase of conversion was followed by a long steady-state phase. This time-dependent change in conversion rate was not due to enzyme denaturation, fast inhibition by substrate or product effects. It resulted from a true slow transient kinetic process induced in the reactive enzyme by the substrates. Under our experimental conditions at pH 5.5, 5 alpha-reductase appeared to undergo a conformational change from an initially highly reactive form to a less reactive form. Since this "hysteretic" behavior was correlated with apparently negative cooperativity in enzyme kinetics, we postulate that, as previously described for other key metabolic enzymes, regulation of 5 alpha-reductase activity in the prostate depends on the molecular flexibility of the enzyme and on changes in the cooperativity of different enzyme forms over time. This original non-michaelian behavior may explain the conflicting kinetics reported so far in the literature for this enzyme. The clinical implications of 5 alpha-reductase hysteresis and its involvement in the damping of DHT production within the prostate are discussed.