Our previous study revealed that human CYP24A1 catalyzes a remarkable metabolism consistingof both C-23 and C-24 hydroxylation pathways that used both 25(OH)D
3 and 1
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,25(OH)
2D
3 as substrates,while rat CYP24A1 showed extreme predominance of the C-24 over C-23 hydroxylation pathway [Sakaki,T., Sawada, N., Komai, K., Shiozawa, S., Yamada, S., Yamamoto, K., Ohyama, Y. and Inouye, K. (2000)
Eur. J. Biochem.
267, 6158-6165]. In this study, by using the
Escherichia coli expression system forhuman CYP24A1, we identified 25,26,27-trinor-23-ene-D
3 and 25,26,27-trinor-23-ene-1
![](/images/gifchars/alpha.gif)
(OH)D
3 as novelmetabolites of 25(OH)D
3 and 1
![](/images/gifchars/alpha.gif)
,25(OH)
2D
3, respectively. These metabolites appear to be closely relatedto the C-23 hydroxylation pathway, because human CYP24A1 produces much more of these metabolitesthan does rat CYP24A1. We propose that the C
24-C
25 bond cleavage occurs by a unique reactionmechanism including radical rearrangement. Namely, after hydrogen abstraction of the C-23 position of1
![](/images/gifchars/alpha.gif)
,25(OH)
2D
3, part of the substrate-radical intermediate is converted into 25,26,27-trinor-23-ene-1
![](/images/gifchars/alpha.gif)
(OH)D
3, while a major part of them is converted into 1
![](/images/gifchars/alpha.gif)
,23,25(OH)
3D
3. Because the C
24-C
25 bond cleavageabolishes the binding affinity of 1
![](/images/gifchars/alpha.gif)
,25(OH)D
3 for the vitamin D receptor, this reaction is quite effectivefor inactivation of 1
![](/images/gifchars/alpha.gif)
,25(OH)D
3.