Facilitated transport of inosine and uridine in cultured mammalian cells is independent of nucleoside phosphorylases.

The zero-trans uptake of uniformly and base-labeled inosine and uridine was measured a 25 degrees C in suspensions of Novikoff rat hepatoma cells, Chinese hamster ovary cells, mouse L cells, mouse S49 lymphoma cells and a purine-nucleoside phosphorylase-deficient subline thereof (NSU-1), and in monolayer culture of mouse 3T3 and L cells. The initial velocities of uptake of both nucleosides were about the same in all cell lines investigated, regardless of the position of the label or of the substrate concentration between 3 and 300 microM or whether or not the cells possessed uridine or purine-nucleoside phosphorylase activity. The kinetic parameters for the facilitated transport of uridine and inosine were also similar in phosphorylase positive and negative cell lines (K = 120--260 microM and V = 6--40 pmol/microliters cell water per s) and the transport activities of the cells exceeded their total phosphorylase activities by at least 10-fold for uridine and 1--2-fold for inosine. Chromatographic fractionation of the intracellular contents and of the culture fluid showed that the free nucleosides appeared intracellularly prior to and more rapidly than their phosphorolysis products. During the initial 20--60 s of uptake of U-14C-labeled nucleosides the rates of intracellular appearance of ribose-1-P and base were about the same. After several minutes of incubation, on the other hand, the main intracellular component was ribose-1-P whereas the base attained a low intracellular steady-state concentration and accumulated in the medium due to exit transport. Other nucleosides, dipyridamole and nitrobenzylthioinosine, specifically inhibited the transport of uridine and inosine, and depressed the intracellular accumulation of ribose-1-P and the formation of base commensurate with that inhibition. The data indicate that the metabolism of inosine and uridine by the various cell lines can be entirely accounted for by the facilitated transport of unmodified nucleoside into the cell followed by intracellular phosphorolysis.

Isolation and characterization of cultured mouse T-lymphoma cells deficient in uridine-cytidine kinase.

Two clones were isolated from mutagenized mouse T-lymphoma cells (S49) which are over 90% deficient in uridine-cytidine kinase. The first clone, AU-200-1, was isolated in two steps by virtue of its resistance to 6-azauridine; whereas the second clone, FU3-70G, was isolated in three steps after exposure to three increasing concentrations of 5-fluorouracil. Extracts of both the AU-200-1 and the FU3-70G cell lines lacked over 90% of the capacity of those from wild type cells to phosphorylate either uridine or cytidine. Furthermore, the uptake of radioactive uridine and cytidine from the medium by intact AU-200-1 and FU3-70G cells was less than 5% of that found for intact wild type cells. By growth rate experiments, these uridine-cytidine kinase-deficient cell lines have altered sensitivities to the toxic pyrimidine analogs, 6-azauridine, 5-fluorouracil, and 5-fluorouridine and thus have been useful in elucidating the biochemical determinants involved in the metabolism of these compounds.