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Low N‐acetylating capacity in patients with Stevens‐Johnson syndrome and toxic epidermal necrolysis *
Author(s) -
Dietrich A.,
Kawakubo Y.,
Rzany B.,
Mockenhaupt M.,
Simon J. C.,
Schöpf E.
Publication year - 1995
Publication title -
experimental dermatology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.108
H-Index - 96
eISSN - 1600-0625
pISSN - 0906-6705
DOI - 10.1111/j.1600-0625.1995.tb00211.x
Subject(s) - toxic epidermal necrolysis , adverse effect , medicine , dermatology
Low constitutive N‐acetylating capacity has been implicated as a predisposing factor for the development of adverse reactions to certain drugs. This prompted us to investigate whether the N‐acetylating capacity of patients with serious cutaneous adverse reactions, i.e., Stevens‐Johnson syndrome (SJS) and toxic epidermal necrolysis (TEN) differed from that of healthy control subjects. N‐acctylating activity was measured in hair root cells by preparing a homogenate from freshly extracted hair roots and assessing acetyl‐CoA‐dependent N‐acetylation by RP‐HPLC using 2‐aminofluorene as a substrate. Samples were obtained from hospitalized patients suffering from acute SJS and TEN or from healthy controls. All patients with SJS and TEN were found to have a low N‐acetylating capacity (0.85 nmol/mg/min compared to 2.21 nmol/mg/min in controls, p<0.05). Based on these findings, a low constitutive N‐acetylating capacity may be one of the predisposing factors for the development of serious cutaneous adverse reactions to drugs that require N‐acetylation in these patients.