The biochemistry, physiology, and pharmacology of biogenic amines, amino acid precursors and metabolic products, and various synthetic derivative have been investigated. The general areas of study include the effects of fluorine substitution of the properties of biogenic amines, adrenergic antagonists and amino acids and catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT). Studies on COMT include: 1) immunohistochemical localization and induction of COMT in the luminal epithelium of pregnant and pseudopregnant rat following treatment with progesterone-receptor inhibitors including RU486 2) localization of COMT in macrophages of the corpus lutea and cervical lymph nodes of rat 3) activity and localization of COMT in the hamster kidney and in estrogen-induced carcinomas of hamster kidney 4) activity and localization of COMT in human endometrial and breast adenocarcinomas 5) substrate specificity and reaction kinetics of 3'-hydroxycoclaurines and the identification of berbines as additional products of the O- methylation reaction derived from 3'-hydroxycoclaurine 6) other studies include the identification of monoamine oxidase A and B as one of the irreversible binding sites of procaine isothiocyanate. Studies of fluorine substituted derivatives of biogenic amines include the tissue distribution and incorporation of 2-fluorohistidine in mouse in vivo.
