Effect of testosterone on purine synthesis de novo in rat perineal muscle in vivo.

We examined in vivo the influence of testosterone on purine synthesis de novo, in the levator ani and gastrocnemius muscles of the rat. The hypoxanthine, adenine and guanine contents and the rate of incorporation of [14C]formate into these purine bases were determined in castrated adult and prepubertal rats (groups 1 and 2) both before and after orchiectomy and, in the second case, at different times after testosterone treatment. Substantially similar behavior was found in both groups, with some specific differences. The results showed an increase in the basal levels after castration (except for a dramatic decrease in adenine and a rise in the Gua/Ade molar ratio in prepubertal rats) and a return to basal levels after hormone administration, which was also accompanied by variations in the Gua/Ade molar ratio. The kinetics of purine nucleotide synthesis de novo in vivo and, specifically, of the overall reactions: IMP formation from PRib-PP, IMP----AMP and IMP----GMP, were followed by evaluating the incorporation curves of [14C]formate into hypoxanthine, adenine and guanine. Our results show that testosterone administration enhanced the incorporation rate and gave characteristic patterns: a diphasic cyclic oscillation of the Ade values in adult castrated rats, and single peaks having a specific shape in the other cases. The Gua/Ade labeling ratio was unchanged in castrated rats and increased in both groups during the first 5 days after testosterone treatment, after which values even fell below normal; in most cases, values overlapped the pattern of the Gua/Ade molar ratio. The specific profile of the curves indicated that testosterone initially accelerated the turnover of guanylic acid and in the second phase re-established the normal behavior and ratio of AMP and GMP formation. These results indicate that the 'inosinic branch point' was subject to regulation by testosterone. The profiles of the incorporation curves and of the Gua/Ade ratio were indicative of a primary and secondary response to hormone action.

Mechanisms of 5-(3,3-dimethyl-1-triazeno)imidazole-4-carboxamide (Dacarbazine) cytotoxicity toward Chinese hamster ovary cells in vitro are dictated by incubation conditions.

Decomposition of the antitumor agent 5-(3,3-dimethyl-1-triazeno)imidazole-4-carboxamide (DTIC, Dacarbazine) produces several potentially toxic compounds, the concentration of which depend on incubation parameters such as pH, temperature and illumination. The action of DTIC on chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cell clone formation in the dark (7-8-day incubation) reflects the slow formation of 2-azahypoxanthine. Hypoxanthine-guanine phosphoribosyltransferase (HGPRT, EC 2.4.2.8)-deficient cells are resistant to DTIC under these conditions, reflecting their inability to utilize 2-azahypoxanthine. The toxicity of DTIC in conventional survival experiments (1-2-h exposure to drug) is dependent upon illumination and is highly influenced by the pH of the medium. Toxicity of DTIC in these experiments appears to reflect rapid accumulation of the immediate photodecomposition product of the drug, 4-diazoimidazole-5-carboxamide (DZC), since HGPRT-deficient cells are not resistant to DTIC under these conditions. The biologically initiated pathway of DTIC action (enzymatic hydroxylation) has little, if any, role in the action of this agent toward cultured CHO cells.

Enzyme activities contributing to hypoxanthine production in Ureaplasma.

Several isozymes have been evaluated by other investigators to help characterize both mycoplasmas and acholeplasmas. We have investigated a number of enzymes contributing to hypoxanthine production in Ureaplasma urealyticum, as part of an ongoing effort to identify a comparative profile of isozyme activities in this species. Cells from large volume cultures were collected by centrifugation and lysed by both freeze-thawing and sonication in hypotonic buffer with Triton X-100. Lysate was clarified by centrifugation. Proteins in the cell lysate were separated by polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, incorporating Triton X-100 in the gel and electrode buffer. Gels were stained to indicate sites of hypoxanthine production from AMP, adenosine, inosine, or adenine, in either phosphate or Tris buffer. The results suggest that adenine deaminase, inosine nucleosidase, and adenosine phosphorylase activities are present in the cell lysate, while adenosine nucleosidase and adenosine deaminase activities are absent. Inosine phosphorylase, AMP nucleosidase and/or 5'-nucleotidase activities may also be present. With the formation of hypoxanthine, the possibility for a salvage pathway exists.

Possible mechanisms for reoxygenation-induced recovery of myocardial high-energy phosphates after hypoxia.

Changes in several factors responsible for high-energy phosphate production and metabolism in the heart perfused under hypoxic and subsequent reoxygenated conditions were studied using rabbit heart Langendorff preparation. A marked decline in myocardial ATP and creatine phosphate contents was observed with prolonged periods of hypoxia lasting from 15 to 60 min. Upon reoxygenation after 15 or 30 min hypoxia, creatine phosphate levels were fully recovered, whereas ATP contents were partially restored. Possible mechanisms responsible for reoxygenation-induced differential recovery of high-energy phosphate contents were investigated. Mitochondrial function for generating ATP was depressed upon hypoxia for longer than 15 min hypoxia, and the decreased function was found to be irreversible upon reoxygenation even after 15 min hypoxia. However, mitochondrial ability to generate ATP in the heart receiving 60 min hypoxia was still observed to some extent. Creatine phosphokinase activity of the myocardium exposed to hypoxic solution for 60 min showed only 19% depression. A release of creatine phosphokinase from the perfused heart was observed after more than 30 min of hypoxic perfusion or during reoxygenated perfusion after 60 min hypoxia. Changes in creatine phosphokinase activities of the myocardium and of the perfusate were not associated with those in myocardial high-energy phosphate contents. Hypoxia also induced significant release of adenine nucleotide metabolites from the perfused heart in a biphasic manner. Substrates responsible for the release of the metabolites were found to be mainly inosine and partly hypoxanthine. The metabolite release was also supported by our finding of a decrease in total adenine nucleotide contents of the myocardium upon hypoxia. The present results suggested a crucial role of hypoxia-induced release of adenine nucleotide metabolites in a differential recovery of ATP and creatine phosphate upon reoxygenation.

The mechanism of adenosine production in rat polymorphonuclear leucocytes.

Adenosine production in intact rat polymorphonuclear leucocytes was studied during 2-deoxyglucose-induced ATP catabolism. A cell-free system containing the cytosolic 5'-nucleotidase (EC 3.1.3.5) as the only phosphohydrolase was also studied. The rate of adenosine formation in both intact cells and the cell-free system showed a similar dependence on energy charge (([ATP] + 1/2 [ADP]/([ATP] + [ADP] + [AMP])), being maximal only at values close to 0.8. Sufficient cytosolic 5'-nucleotidase was present in intact cells to explain the observed rate of adenosine formation. We conclude that the cytosolic 5'-nucleotidase is responsible for adenosine production in rat polymorphonuclear leucocytes. This mechanism provides a direct biochemical link between the energy status of a cell and the rate of adenosine formation.

Arginine and pyrimidine biosynthetic defects in Neisseria gonorrhoeae strains isolated from patients.

Neisseria gonorrhoeae strains with nutritional requirements that include arginine (Arg-), uracil (Ura-), and hypoxanthine have attracted attention because of their tendency to cause disseminated infections, as a basis for genetic studies of arginine and pyrimidine biosynthesis, we examined the activities of four enzymes of these pathways in cell-free extracts of both prototrophic and Arg- Ura- strains. Activities of glutamate acetyltransferase, aspartate transcarbamylase, and orotate phosphoribosyltransferase, encoded respectively by argE, pyrB, and pyrE, were absent in some Arg- Ura- isolates. Gonococci that were unable to utilize ornithine for growth in place of citrulline lacked activity of carbamyl phosphate synthetase (encoded by car). Defects of car imposed requirements for both citrulline (or arginine) and a pyrimidine because of the dual role of carbamyl phosphate in the two pathways. Defects of argE, car, pyrB, and pyrE were separately introduced by genetic transformation into representatives of a gonococcal strain which initially was prototrophic. Results of enzyme assays of these isogenic auxotrophic transformants confirmed the gene-enzyme relationships.

Purine metabolism in human lymphocytes.

In peripheral human blood lymphocytes the uptake and metabolism of adenine, guanine, and hypoxanthine was investigated. This was achieved by incubation of purified lymphocytes with 14C-purine bases, separation of cells from the incubation medium by a rapid filtration technique, and subsequent separation of the acid soluble material by thin-layer chromatography. No perferential uptake for one of the purine bases was observed. In all cases only traces of 14C-purine bases not added originally and labeled nucleosides could be demonstrated. Approximately 2/3 of adenine and 1/2 of guanine or hypoxanthine were converted to nucleotides. Separation of formed nucleotides showed that adenine and guanine were metabolized mainly to their corresponding nucleotides; hypoxanthine was converted to a considerable amount to adenine nucleotides and only to a small proportion into its own nucleotides. These results demonstrate the predomonance of adenine nucleotide formation in normal human lymphocytes.

[Clearance and transformation of inosine in the body]. / Klirens i prevrashcheniia inozina v organizme.

In 5 patients with myocardial infarction the ways of the inosine transformation and its clearance rate following injection of this drug in an amount of 200 to 400 mg were studied. After inosine introduction into the organism it is shown to immediately break down to hypoxanthine which makes determination of its half-time body retention period practically impossible. The half-time body retention period for hypoxanthine was about 3 min. The beneficial influence of inosine on the myocardium is apparently due to stimulation of some glycolysis reactions and pentosophosphate shunt at the expense of riboso-1-phosphate.

Adenosine production in the ischemic kidney.

We conducted experiments to determine (1) tissue, blood, and urine levels of adenosine produced by the ischemic kidney under conditions of renal artery occlusion, and (2) the site(s) of production and release of adenosine by the kidney. Concentrations of adenosine, inosine, and hypoxanthine in the dog urine were found to increase after 2 minutes of renal artery occlusion as were concentrations of these metabolites in renal tissue after 10 minutes of renal artery occlusion. Renal venous plasma levels of inosine and hypoxanthine also were elevated after 3 minutes of arterial occlusion. In modified stop-flow experiments, adenosine appeared in the urine in a peak that corresponded most closely with proximal tubule fluid. 5'-Nucleotidase, the enzyme which catalyzes the dephosphorylation of 5'-AMP or 5'-IMP to adenosine or inosine, respectively, was found to be located primarily on the external membranes and mitochondria of proximal tubule cells, but not in distal tubule or collecting duct cells. Since adenosine has been demonstrated to elicit renal vasoconstriction and is produced by the ischemic kidney, it is suggested that adenosine may be involved in the mediation of postocclusion renal ischemia.

Production, metabolism and possible functions of adenosine in brain tissue in situ.

Adenosine and H+ may act synergistically to regulate cerebral blood flow because adenosine production is enhanced under various experimental conditions associated with an imbalance between oxygen supply and oxygen need. Direct application of adenosine dilates the pial vessels, but changes in cerebral vascular resistance are not observed when adenosine is infused intraarterially. This is because adenosine does not readily cross the blood-brain barrier. The studies reported here show that in dogs the adenosine released into the interstitium is partly reincorporated into adenine nucleotides via an adenosine kinase (EC 2.7.1.20) reaction (salvage pathway) and partly degraded to inosine and hypoxanthine. However, in contrast to other tissues, the accumulation of iosine and hypoxanthine in brain tissue proceeds at a rate slower than that of adenosine because one of the degradative enzymes, namely purine-nucleoside phosphorylase (EC 2.4.2.1) is located only in the vessel wall, which is not readily permeable to adenosine. Thus, the slow access of adenosine to its degradative enzymes delays the appearance of its products, inosine and hypoxanthine.

Compartmentation of cardiac adenine nucleotides and formation of adenosine.

After prelabeling the adenine nucleotides (ATP, ADP, AMP) of isolated perfused guinea pig hearts with either 14C-adenine or 14C-adenosine for 35 min, labeled adenosine, inosine, hypoxanthine and cyclic 3'5'-AMP (cAMP) were continuously released into the cardiac perfusate. Determination of the specific activities (SA) of the adenine nucleotides, cAMP, and their breakdown products (adenosine, inosine, hypoxanthine) in tissue and perfusate revealed: Under steady state conditions the SA of adenosine and cAMP in the perfusate were of the same order of magnitude and proved to be many times higher than the SA of the respective precursor adenine nucleotides. This difference was observed regardless whether adenine or adenosine was used as prelabeling substances. The SA of inosine and hypoxanthine in the perfusate were constantly lower than the SA of adenosine. Cardiac ischemia of 6 min, which resulted in a markedly increased formation of adenosine, led to a pronounced decrease in the SA of adenosine released from the heart. Our findings provide evidence that at least two different adenine nucleotide compartments of the heart severe as precursors for the formation of adenosine and cAMP, one characterized by a high, the other by a lower SA. Under normoxic conditions adenosine and cAMP released into the cardiac perfusate are derived mainly from a nucleotide fraction of high SA, which appears to be rather small. During ischemia a second compartment of much lower SA in addition contributes to the formation of adenosine.

Metabolism of 6-mercaptopurine in human leukemic cells.

The PRPP concentrations, PRPP formation, and phosphorylation of 6-mercaptopurine in leukocyte suspensions and homogenates prepared from leukemic patients were studied...

Calcium ionophore A23187 (Eli Lilly): effect on platelet function, structure and metabolism.

The addition of 0.1 muM ionophore A23187 to washed platelets incubated in citrated saline caused massive release of stored serotonin accompanied by intracellular accumulation of inosine monophosphate, but produced no detectable influx of externally added calcium or abnormal structural alterations. With increasing ionophore concentration there was a significant influx of calcium and a drastic alteration in the platelet ultrastructure. The increase in ionophore concentration was accompanied by the conversion of the major part of metabolic adenine nucleotides to inosine monophosphate and an almost complete blockage of further conversion to inosine and hypoxanthine. The metabolic changes were accentuated by the addition of calcium at concentrations less than 1/10 of the citrate concentration. In the presence of Ca++, or when citrate was omitted, there was a substantial leakage of cytoplasmic material, which at times suggested complete exchangeability between cytoplasm and extracellular medium. Our findings are consistent with the hypothesis that the platelet release reaction is triggered by intracellularly bound calcium. They also suggest that the application of high ionophore concentration has a toxicologic rather than a physiologic effect on platelets, and that a weak chelator added during incubation with the ionophore can in the absence of divalent cations prevent cell destruction, but not the toxic effect on cell metabolism.

Metal ion contents of gel-filtered platelets from patients with storage pool disease.

Platelets from nine patients with storage pool disease (SPD) and from ten control subjects were isolated by gel filtration into a suspension medium permitting the direct determination of platelet Mg-2+, Ca-2+, and K+ levels. The total intracellular levels of ATP and ADP, as well as the incorporation patterns of 14-C-adenine into the metabolic nucleotide pool, were also determined in these platelet suspensions. The gel-filtered platelets (GFP) from SPD patients exhibited slightly lowered levels of ATP and substantially reduced amounts of ADP, in agreement with previous studies using PRP suspensions. Diminished aggregation responses to ADP, epinephrine, and to collagen in particular, similar to those observed previously in PRP, were obtained in GFP from SPD patients. However, GFP from the patients exhibited more variable aggregation responses to addition of ADP and epinephrine than did GFP from the control subjects. Increases in the extent of radioactive hypoxanthine formation, observed previously in normal platelets as a result of isolation into the suspension medium used in these studies, were significantly reduced in the GFP from SPD patients. The levels of platelet Mg-2+ and K+ determined in GFP from the patients were not significantly different from the levels of these ions in GFP from control subjects. However, substantial reductions in platelet Ca-2+ were found in the SPD platelets. A strong correlation was obtained between this reduction in platelet Ca-2+ and the reduction in ADP in these platelets. No such correlation was apparent between the ATP and Ca-2+ deficiencies. These results suggest that a major portion of platelet Ca-2+ may be located in the dense granules and support previous hypotheses that granular ADP and/or Ca-2+ may play a role in the release reaction. The finding of normal levels of platelet Mg-2+ and K+ in SPD platelets, however, suggests that these latter ions are not located in the dense granules.

The effect of platelet concentrate storage temperature on adenine nucleotide metabolism.

The effect of platelet concentrate storage temperature (4 degrees C versus 22 degrees C) on platelet adenine nucleotide metabolism was studied. In general, levels of platelet ATP and ADP, the release reaction, and the metabolis nucleotide pool were best preserved for 72 hr by storage of concentrates at 4 degrees C. Storage of concentrates for 72 hr at 22 degrees C was occasionally associated with a pH decrease to less than 6.0, which is incompatible with platelet viability. When the pH fell below 6.0, there was a marked deterioration of platelet adenine nucleotide levels and the release reaction. The results for concentrates stored at 22 degrees C, with a final pH above 6.0, were not inferior to the results for those stored at 4 degrees C. The pH remained above 7.0 in all concentrates stored at 4 degrees C. The pH changes of platelet concentrates stored at 22 degrees C could not solely be attributed to platelet count, red cell count, or bacterial contamination. Storage at both temperatures was associated with conversion of ATP in the metabolic adenine nucleotide pool to hypoxanthine.

Studies on the platelet defect in alcoholism.

Platelet ultrastructure, protein composition, and adenine nucleotide metabolism were studied in patients ingesting ethanol to elucidate the mechanism of ethanol-induced changes in platelet function and survival. Serial measurements were made in 2 patients who maintained blood ethanol levels in excess of 300 mg/100 ml for 3 to 4 weeks. No major changes in structure or metabolism were detected in platelets from the patient whose platelet counts remained stable during the ingestion period. By contrast, the development of thrombocytopenia in the other patient was associated with significantly reduced intracellular ADP, increased ATP/ADP ratio, decreased release of ADP, increased specific radioactivity of intracellular ATP and ADP, and increased formation of hypoxanthine. Additionally, platelets from this patient varied markedly in size, contained giant granules, and possessed a poorly defined microtubular system. After stimulation with ADP or collagen, centripetal granule migration was retarded, and the aggregates formed were small and loose. Several large proteins were absent from the supernatant fraction of sonicated platelets from the thrombocytopenic patient. Exposure of normal platelets to ethanol in vitro resulted in no detectable change in platelet ultrastructure. The data indicate that the ethanol-related abnormalities of platelet function are due in part to subnormal amounts of intracellular ADP and a deficit in the storage pool of ADP. Additionally, the results suggest that impairment in the release mechanism to the observed defect in the release reaction.