Cysteine conjugate toxicity in a human cell line: correlation with C-S lyase activity in human hepatic tissue

C-S lyase enzymes catalyse the generation of mutagenic and/or cytotoxic thiols from cysteine conjugated xenobiotics. These cysteine conjugates are produced subsequent to glutathione conjugations as a metabolic step in the mercapturic acid pathway, traditionally thought of as a pathway solely associated with detoxification. Human Chang liver (HCL) cells were challenged with a range of cysteine conjugates demonstrated to be substrates for human hepatic C-S lyases. The cellular toxicity of these compounds was determined and it was observed that the rank order of substrate toxicity obtained for the HCL cells followed the rank order of C-S lyase activity of the substrates in a freshly isolated mitochondrial fraction of human tissue. The presence of C-S lyase activity was also established in this cell line.