THE OXIDATION OF DOPAMINE AND EPININE BY THE 2 FORMS OF MONOAMINE-OXIDASE FROM RAT-LIVER

Information on the ''in vitro'' oxidation of epinine by monoamine oxid ase (MAO) compared to dopamine is very poor. The aim of this work was to study the oxidative deamination of epinine and dopamine by rat live r MAO-A and MAO-B. The contributions of MAO-A and B to the metabolism of dopamine (55% and 45%, respectively) and epinine (70% and 30%, resp ectively) were similar. The results of this study show that epinine is a substrate for both forms of MAO in rat liver, although the contribu tion of MAO A to the deamination of this secondary amine appears to be slightly more important than that of MAO B.