• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.347-355
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• 1994

Indolo[3,2-b]carbazole(ICZ) is a potent Ah receptor agonist with biological activities similar in several respects to those of the potent environmental toxin, TCDD. ICZ is produced during the oilgomerization of indole-3-carbinol(I3C), a breakdown product of the glucobrassicin present in food plants of the Brassica genus. In the present study we examined ICZ levels in tissues and excreta of rats treated with I3C or dietary cabbage of established glucobrasicin content, and in feces of conventional and germfree rats fed on a basal diet, and of humans. We also examined the levels of cytochrome P4501A1 induction, as determined by the ethoxyresorufin ο-deethylase assay, in tissues of animals that received cabbage-supplemented diets, or which were treated with purified I3C or ICZ. Our findings indicated that incorporation of either homogenized or whole freeze-dried cabbage in the feed led to large increases(16-60 fold) in the levels of ICZ in the feces and lower gastrointestinal tract of rats. We observed that whereas ICZ is readily detectable at about the same levels(2.00$\pm$0.50 ppb) in the feces of conventional rats fed on a purified diet and in human feces, levels of ICZ in the feces of germfree animals fed on the basal diet were at the limits of detection(0.40$\pm$0.20 ppb), indication that gut bacteria are important for the production of ICZ from essential dietary constituents in the basal diet. We showed that in contrast to the near 7000-fold difference in CYP1A1 inducing potencies of ICZ and TCDD in cells in culture, their inducing potencies differ by only about an order of magnitude in rats. Nonetheless, the levels of ICZ remaining in livers twenty hours after I3C treatment appear too low to account for the induced activity. This result indicates that ICZ may be rapidly cleared from the liver or that substances other than, or in addition to, ICZ be responsible for the enzyme-inducing activity of orally administered I3C or its precursors.

• Korean Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.516-522
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• 1998

An Actinomycetes strain, MSA-1, containing antimicrobial component was isolated from the black sponge, Halichondzia okadai, and was identified to a genus level by morphological and chemotaxonornic methods. The gray colored spores were oval type with smooth surface and formed flexibilis spore chains. The cell wall of this strain was type I containing D-aminopimellic acid (D-DAP) and no specific sugar was detected. Phospholipid of the cell membrane was PII type including phophoethanolamine and the major fatty acids of total lipid were branched anteiso-15 : 0, iso-16 : 0, 16 : 0 and iso-17 ; 0. From these results and other characteristics described in the Bergey's Manual, this strain was identificated as a Streptomyces sp. Meanwhile, 10mg of pale yellow colored antimicreobial component was isolated by HPLC method from the cultured Streptomyces sp. (70g of cryophillized mycellis). By crystallographyc analysis, HIRESMS and NMR assignment, the antimicrobial component produced from the strain MSA-1 was elucidated as the staurosporine (indolo[2,3-a]carbazole alkaloid).