摘要:We examined the effect of coffee on conjugation reactions in the human colon carcinoma cell line, Caco-2. After supplementing Caco-2 cultures with both 1-naphthol (200 μ M ) and various concentrations of coffee, the accumulation of 1-naphthyl sulfate and glucuronide in the growth medium was determined by analytical HPLC over a 24-h period. A strong reduction in sulfo-conjugation (<50% of the control value) was observed in cells treated with coffee (IC50=4.3%), but no effect on glucuronic acid conjugation (glucuronidation) was observed. Coffee was also found to inhibit sulfotransferase (SULT) activity towards 1-naphthol in vitro to a similar extent (IC50=5.1%) as in intact Caco-2 cells, but exhibited no effect upon UDP-glucuronosyl transferase (UGT) activity in vitro . PCR analyses showed no significant changes in the expression of either SULT genes (SULT1A1 and SULT1A3) or UGT genes (UGT1A1 and UGT1A6) following treatment with coffee solutions of up to 5% in concentration. These results suggest that the consumption of coffee can modify sulfo-conjugation reactions within intestinal epithelial cells, which may possibly affect the bioavailability of therapeutic drugs and the toxicity of environmental chemicals.