Oxidative metabolism of carbon disulfide by isolated rat hepatocytes and microsomes

The oxidative metabolism of carbon disulfide (CS2) was investigated in isolated rat hepatocytes and liver microsomes. In microsomes, CS2 metabolism was increased by phenobarbital pretreatment of the rats and decreased with pretreatment of the rats with cobaltous chloride. In both microsomes and hepatocytes, CS2 metabolism was inhibited by SKF-525A. Carbon dioxide (CO2) was the major volatile metabolite of CS2 in hepatocytes, and carbonyl sulfide (COS) was the major volatile metabolite in microsomal incubations. Addition of cytosol to microsomal incubations shifted the predominant volatile metabolite from COS to CO2 but did not change total volatile metabolite formation. Acetazolamide, a carbonic anhydrase inhibitor, significantly decreased COS metabolism but not CS2 metabolism in isolated hepatocytes or microsomes fortified with dialyzed cytosol. When [18O]H2O was included in incubations of microsomes and CS2, a substantial portion of the resulting COS was [18O] enriched, indicating that the oxygen atom was derived from water. These data are consistent with the hypothesis that CS2 is oxidized predominantly by the cytochrome P-450 containing monooxygenase system, and the product of this reaction is an unstable intermediate which reacts with water to form monothiocarbonate and reactive sulfur species. Monothiocarbonate is the hydrated form of COS. In intact hepatocytes, it is metabolized predominantly to CO2 and hydrogen sulfide. Unmetabolized monothiocarbonate can be dehydrated to COS. The majority of the reactive sulfur species and hydrogen sulfide are oxidized to nonvolatile sulfur compounds, including sulfate, but by different mechanisms.