Figure 9

Polymorphisms in glucoronosyl transferases affect liver damage. Many polymorphisms in glucoronosyl tranferase enzymes reduce their activity by 50% or more (see text). The black, blue, and red curves show model calculations of the time courses of the percentage of functional hepatocytes in response to a 10 g overdose if the V _max for the four glucoronosyl tranferases are normal (as given in Methods), 50% of normal, or 10% of normal, respectively. The activity of the glucoronosyl tranferases has a dramatic effect on liver damage. With normal parameter values (black curve) there is almost no hepatocyte death. However, at the 10% level (red curve), the number of functional hepatocytes decreases well below the 30% level thought to be the threshold for liver failure[10].