Quantitative requirements for NADPH in the support of aromatization by human placental microsomes

Suitable incubation conditions were developed for reduced pyridine nucleotide protection and regeneration to permit quantitative assessment of the NADPH requirement for steroid aromatization by human placental microsomes. 10 mM dithiothreitol was found to protect NADP(H) from microsomal nucleotide pyrophosphatase and 2 mM nicotinamide mononucleotide was utilized to control nucleotide glycohydrolase activity. Under these assay conditions, the initial rates of aromatization obtained with restricted NADPH levels were critically dependent upon both the amount and the source of exogenous NADPH-regenerating dehydrogenase system. With excess Leuconostoc mesenteroides glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase, an apparent Km for NADPH of 0.20 microM was observed for aromatization which is significantly below all previous estimates of the NADPH requirement and which is at greatest only one-tenth the Km value for NADPH utilization by NADPH-cytochrome c reductase. These findings suggest a potential regulatory role for both NADPH-generating and NADPH-accepting enzymes in the support of estrogen biosynthesis.