Adenine, hypoxanthine and guanine metabolism in fibroblasts from normal individuals and from patients with hypoxanthine phosphoribosyltransferase deficiency

High activities of erythrocyte glutathione peroxidase in patients with the Lesch-Nyhan syndrome

Antioxidant levels were determined in five patients with the Lesch-Nyhan syndrome. The erythrocyte glutathione peroxidase activity was in average 1.8 times higher in Lesch-Nyhan patients than in controls (1.68 +/- 0.36 versus 0.92 +/- 0.17 mu kat/g hemoglobin, p less than 0.001). Plasma CuZn-superoxide dismutase activity was two times higher (p less than 0.001) and Mn-superoxide dismutase activity was 1.5 times higher (p less than 0.05) than in controls, whilst erythrocyte CuZn-superoxide dismutase, plasma extracellular-superoxide dismutase and lymphocyte superoxide dismutase did not differ between Lesch-Nyhan patients and healthy controls. These data might indicate that Lesch-Nyhan patients are exposed to a higher oxidative load than healthy control persons.

The potential mechanism for glutamine-induced collagen biosynthesis in cultured human skin fibroblasts

Although glutamine (Gln) is known as an important stimulator of collagen biosynthesis in collagen-producing cells, the mechanism and endpoints by which it regulate the process remain largely unknown. Intermediates of Gln interconversion: glutamate (Glu) and pyrroline-5-carboxylate (P5C) stimulate collagen biosynthesis in cultured cells but evoke different maxima of collagen biosynthesis stimulating activity at different times of incubation. P5C was found to be the most potent stimulator of collagen biosynthesis after 6 h of incubation (approx. three-fold increase); after 12 h, it induced increase in collagen biosynthesis to 260%, while at 24 h, the process was decreased to approximately 80% of control values. Glu induced increase in collagen biosynthesis to approximately 180%, 400% and 120% of control values, after 6, 12 and 24 h, respectively, suggesting that after 12 h of incubation, Glu was the most potent stimulator of collagen biosynthesis. Glu was also the most potent stimulator of type I procollagen expression at this time. After 6, 12 and 24 h incubation, Gln induced collagen biosynthesis to approximately 112, 115 and 230% of control values, respectively. Since prolidase is known to be involved in collagen metabolism, the enzyme activity assay was performed in fibroblasts cultured in the presence of Gln, Glu and P5C. While Gln and Glu required 24 h for maximal stimulation of prolidase activity, P5C induced it after 6-12 h. The data suggest that P5C induced collagen biosynthesis and prolidase activity in a shorter time than Gln and Glu. We considered that P5C directly stimulates the processes, while Gln acts through its intermediate-P5C. Reduction of P5C to proline is coupled to the conversion of glucose-6-phosphate (G6P) to 6-phospho-gluconate, catalyzed by G6P dehydrogenase. We have found that dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA), a potent inhibitor of G6P dehydrogenase, inhibited a stimulatory effect of P5C on collagen synthesis, expression of type I collagen and prolidase activity. Our results postulate a potential mechanism of glutamine-induced collagen biosynthesis through its intermediate - P5C. P5C-dependent activation of nucleotide biosynthesis, prolidase activity and P5C conversion into proline may contribute to the stimulation of collagen biosynthesis.

Adenine nucleotide turnover in hypoxanthine-guanine phosphoribosyl-transferase deficiency: evidence for an increased contribution of purine biosynthesis de novo

This study examined whether increased purine biosynthesis de novo in HGPRT deficiency contributes to adenine nucleotide formation compared with normal subjects. Four HGPRT deficient patients and four normal subjects received intravenously 10 to 25 microCi of [8-14C]adenine to radiolabel the adenine nucleotide pool followed five days later by a rapid infusion of fructose to stimulate purine nucleotide degradation. Fructose infusion increased urinary radioactivity in the enzyme-deficient patients to 141% +/- 13% (mean +/- SEM) of the baseline values compared with 1,067% +/- 102% in normal subjects (P less than .01). The absolute mean increase in total urinary purines in the patients was 17.96 +/- 3.36 and 10.38 +/- 3.80 mmol/g creatinine in controls (P less than .05). The apparent specific radioactivity of urinary purines increased in the control group from a mean of 1.29 X 10(5) to 3.64 X 10(5) cpm/mmol of purines (P less than .02) but decreased in the enzyme-deficient subjects from a mean of 1.66 X 10(5) to 1.38 X 10(5) cpm/mmol. To assess if the decrease in the specific activity of urinary purines was due to an elevated rate of de novo purine synthesis, two HGPRT-deficient patients were treated with allopurinol and adenine followed five days later by a fructose infusion. The administration of adenine increased the specific activity of urinary purines after the infusion of fructose from a mean baseline value of 1.05 X 10(5) to 1.42 X 10(5) cpm/mmol of purines.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Inherited superactivity of phosphoribosylpyrophosphate synthetase: association of uric acid overproduction and sensorineural deafness

PURPOSE

Superactivity of 5-phosphoribosyl 1-pyrophosphate (PP-Rib-P) synthetase, inherited as an X chromosome-linked trait, has been reported in nearly 20 families in which overproduction of uric acid is invariably present in hemizygous affected males. Clinical manifestations of PP-Rib-P synthetase superactivity are mainly limited to gout in early adulthood. Neurologic deficits, including sensorineural deafness, have rarely been described. We herein document the association of PP-Rib-P synthetase superactivity, gout with excessive uric acid synthesis, and sensorineural deafness in an additional family.

PATIENTS AND METHODS

Two members of a Spanish family were studied: an eight-year-old boy (Patient 1) with tophaceous gout, purine nucleotide and uric acid overproduction, and sensorineural deafness, and his 27-year-old mother (Patient 2), who had gout. Fibroblast cultures were initiated from skin biopsy specimens, and measurements of PP-Rib-P and purine nucleotide metabolism in the fibroblasts were performed.

RESULTS

A labile but superactive PP-Rib-P synthetase was demonstrated in the fibroblasts cultured from both Patients 1 and 2. The kinetic basis of PP-Rib-P synthetase superactivity in this family was resistance to purine nucleotide inhibition of enzyme activity. More severe derangements in the enzyme and in PP-Rib-P and purine synthesis in Patient 1's cells than in Patient 2's cells suggest that Patient 1 is hemizygous and Patient 2 is heterozygous for an X chromosome-linked genetic defect. Limited pedigree data support this view. Compared with affected members of seven other families with PP-Rib-P synthetase superactivity, these patients are intermediate in the range of clinical expression and in the severity of the enzyme defect as measured by the degree of aberration of PP-Rib-P and purine nucleotide synthesis in fibroblasts. Metabolic abnormalities were more severe in Patient 1's cells than in the cells of most male patients (in whom clinical expression is limited to early adult-onset gout) but were less severe than in the cells of two patients in whom more complex enzyme defects were associated with uric acid overproduction and neurodevelopmental abnormalities (including deafness) in male children and adult women.

CONCLUSION

Certain defects resulting in PP-Rib-P synthetase superactivity may be causally related to neurologic impairment, most commonly sensorineural deafness.

Phosphoribosylpyrophosphate synthetase superactivity. A study of five patients with catalytic defects in the enzyme

Superactive phosphoribosylpyrophosphate (PRPP) synthetases were characterized in fibroblasts and erythrocytes from 5 unrelated men with gout and/or hyperuricemia and uric acid overproduction. The kinetic basis of enzyme superactivity in all patients was increased maximal reaction velocity. Affinities of the enzymes for substrates and activators and responsiveness to inhibitors were normal, and levels of immunoreactive enzyme in patient and control fibroblast and erythrocyte extracts were comparable. Enzymes purified to homogeneity from 2 patients confirmed the presence of isolated catalytic defects. Altered physical properties of certain of the superactive enzymes suggested the presence of several distinctive structural defects among the aberrant forms. Fibroblasts from each affected patient showed increased PRPP concentration and generation, as well as accelerated rates of all PRPP-requiring purine nucleotide synthetic pathways. These findings support the concept that enzyme superactivity results in uric acid overproduction as a consequence of increased rates of PRPP and purine nucleotide synthesis. Cultured cells from female relatives of 2 patients showed evidence for the heterozygous carrier state, as measured both by enzyme activities and by rates of PRPP and purine synthesis. The clinical phenotype in 4 patients was limited to early adult-onset gout and its consequences, whereas the fifth patient expressed a familial constellation of hyperuricemia, sensorineural deafness, ataxia, and renal insufficiency. The severity of the derangements in PRPP synthetase and in PRPP and purine synthesis in cells from the 5 patients, however, was comparable. The neurologic accompaniments of enzyme superactivity found in 1 family described here, and in 2 others described previously, thus may not necessarily be consequences of primary defects in PRPP synthetase.

Superactivity of human phosphoribosyl pyrophosphate synthetase due to altered regulation by nucleotide inhibitors and inorganic phosphate

Phosphoribosyl pyrophosphate (PPRibP) synthetase activity was studied in cultured fibroblasts and lymphoblasts from a male child (patient 2-A) in whom inherited purine nucleotide and uric acid overproduction are accompanied by neurological deficits. Chromatographed or partially purified preparations of the child's enzyme showed 5-6-fold increased inhibitory constants (I0.5) for the noncompetitive inhibitors GDP and 6-methylthioinosine monophosphate but normal responsiveness to the competitive inhibitors ADP and 2,3-diphosphoglycerate. Activation of the PPRibP synthetase of patient 2-A by Pi was also abnormal with 3-4-fold reduced apparent KD values for Pi. Superactivity of the PPRibP synthetase of this child thus appeared to result from a combination of regulatory defects; selective resistance to noncompetitive inhibitors and increased responsiveness to Pi activation. Selective growth of the patient's fibroblasts in medium containing 6-methylthioinosine confirmed the functional significance of the in vitro inhibitor resistance of the aberrant enzyme. Fibroblasts and lymphoblasts derived from patient 2-A showed increased concentrations and rates of generation of PPRibP as well as increased rates of the pathways of purine base salvage and purine nucleotide synthesis de novo. The magnitudes of these increases in the child's cells exceeded those in cells with catalytically superactive PPRibP synthetases. These alterations as well as the in vitro kinetic abnormalities in the patient 2-A enzyme were expressed to a reduced degree in fibroblasts from the child's affected mother, supporting the proposal that this woman is a heterozygous carrier for X-linked enzyme superactivity.

Selective expression of phosphoribosylpyrophosphate synthetase superactivity in human lymphoblast lines

Phenotypic expression of 5-phosphoribosyl 1-pyrophosphate (PRPP) synthetase superactivity was examined in lymphoblast lines derived from six unrelated male patients. Fibroblasts from these individuals have increased rates of PRPP and purine nucleotide synthesis and express four classes of kinetic derangement underlying enzyme superactivity: increased maximal reaction velocity (catalytic defect); inhibitor resistance (regulatory defect); increased substrate affinity (substrate binding defect); and combined catalytic and regulatory defects. Lymphoblast lines from three patients with catalytic defects and from three normal individuals were indistinguishable with respect to enzyme activities, PRPP concentrations and generation, and rates of purine synthesis. Enzyme in lymphoblasts from a patient with combined defects also showed normal maximal reaction velocity but expressed purine nucleotide inhibitor resistance. A second regulatory defect and a substrate binding defect were also demonstrable in lymphoblasts and were identical to the enzyme defects in fibroblasts from the respective patients. Regulatory and substrate binding defects in lymphoblasts were accompanied by increased rates of PRPP and purine nucleotide synthesis. Among explanations for selective expression of enzyme superactivity, reduced concentrations of catalytically superactive enzymes seemed unlikely: immunoreactive PRPP synthetase was comparable in normal-derived and patient-derived cells. Activation of normal enzyme in transformed lymphocytes was also unlikely because absolute specific activities of lymphoblast PRPP synthetases corresponded to those of normal fibroblast and erythrocyte enzymes. Abnormal electrophoretic mobilities and thermal stabilities, identified in certain catalytically superactive fibroblast PRPP synthetases, were not found in the corresponding lymphoblast enzymes. Thus, lymphoblast PRPP synthetases from patients with catalytic superactivity appeared to differ structurally and functionally from their fibroblast counterparts.

Lesch-Nyhan syndrome, caffeine model: increase of purine and pyrimidine enzymes in rat brain

Rats ingesting high doses of caffeine reproduce the self-destructive behaviour observed in the Lesch-Nyhan syndrome. This syndrome includes a deficit in hypoxanthine-guanine phosphoribosyltransferase. We have observed, however, that the activity of hypoxanthine-guanine phosphoribosyltransferase increases in direct proportion to the concentration of caffeine found in rat brain. It appears, therefore, that the caffeine model is not a true model for the Lesch-Nyhan syndrome, or alternatively, that the deficit in hypoxanthine-guanine phosphoribosyltransferase is coincidental and not a main key to the multifarious aspects of the syndrome, particularly the self-mutilation. The possibility that levels of dopamine are increased in the caffeine model are discussed as a basis for the destructive behaviour. We have found also that ingestion of large amounts of caffeine increases the activities in rat brain of adenosine deaminase, purine nucleoside phosphorylase, aspartate carbamoyl-transferase, dihydroorotase, and dihydroorotate oxidase.

Purine re-utilization in normal and malignant cells of human placental origin

The metabolism of the purine compounds adenine, hypoxanthine and adenosine, was studied in cultured human choriocarcinoma cells (BeWo) and in term human placental cells in primary culture. Both preparations retained at least some specific placental functions, as shown by secretion of human chorionic gonadotrophin, which was less in the malignant cell line than in the primary culture. In contrast, choriocarcinoma cells incorporated substantially more purine bases (adenine and hypoxanthine) and nucleoside (adenosine) into nucleotides, mainly ATP. Adenosine metabolism was concentration-dependent, with a higher proportion metabolized to hypoxanthine at higher substrate concentration. The term placental cells, which do not divide in culture, have a less active purine metabolism, but they retain a degree of specialized function higher than that of malignant cells of placental origin.

Metabolism of purine nucleosides in human and ovine lymphocytes and rat thymocytes and their influence on mitogenic stimulation

1. Phosphorolysis and phosphorylation rates of inosine, guanosine and deoxyguanosine were determined in disrupted and intact human and ovine lymphocytes and rat thymocytes and related with their effect on mitogenic stimulation. 2. Activity of purine nucleoside phosphorylase (EC 2.4.2.1) was about 10 times higher in extracts of human lymphocytes than in those of ovine lymphocytes and rat thymocytes. Apparent Km values for inosine and guanosine were higher in human lymphocytes (about 100 microM) than in ovine lymphocytes (50 microM). Apparent Km values for deoxyguanosine were about 100 microM in the extracts of all three cell types. 3. In extracts of human and ovine lymphocytes the presence of guanosine kinase activity was established. Deoxyguanosine kinase activity was detected in all three cell types. 4. The rate of phosphorylation of deoxyguanosine was much lower than the rate of phosphorolysis both in extracts and in intact cells. 5. Deoxyguanosine, guanosine and inosine were incorporated by intact cells into nucleotides and nucleic acids. This incorporation of deoxyguanosine and guanosine was only partially due to phosphorolysis and subsequent conversion by hypoxanthine-guanine phosphoribosyltransferase (EC 2.4.2.8). The incorporation of inosine appeared to be due completely to this route. 6. Inosine (0.5 mM) did not inhibit thymidine incorporation of phytohemagglutinin-stimulated human and ovine lymphocytes. At the same concentration deoxyinosine caused 50% inhibition, but guanosine and deoxyguanosine inhibited almost completely. Thymidine incorporation of concanavalin A-stimulated rat thymocytes was hardly inhibited by 0.5 mM inosine, deoxyinosine and guanosine, but 50 microM and 0.5 mM deoxyguanosine caused 25% and complete inhibition, respectively.

Glutamine requirements for purine metabolism in leukemic lymphoblasts

The two pathways of purine metabolism that include glutamine-dependent reactions, purine synthesis de novo and guanine nucleotide synthesis, were studied in cultured lymphoblasts derived from patients with T cell (JM), B cell (BALL) or null cell (NALL) acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). When glutamine was omitted from the incubation medium, purine synthesis de novo, measured by the incorporation of 14C-formate into purine compounds, was depressed to barely measurable rates in BALL and NALL cells, but proceeded at moderate though reduced rates in JM cells, when compared to synthesis in the presence of 2 mM glutamine. Similarly, the incorporation of 14C-hypoxanthine into guanine nucleotides was arrested at the glutamine-requiring XMP-aminase reaction in the BALL and NALL lines but not in the JM line, when exogenous glutamine was absent. The data suggest that glutamine deprivation, whether by omission from the culture medium in vitro or by glutaminase treatment in vivo, will have more profound biochemical consequences in B and null cell-derived ALL than in T All.

Aminoimidazole carboxamide ribonucleoside toxicity: a model for study of pyrimidine starvation

Aminoimidazole carboxamide ribonucleoside (AIC-R), a purine precursor, has biphasic effects on the growth of Chinese hamster fibroblasts. At 200 microM AIC-R cell growth is almost completely arrested, while at 50 and 700 microM AIC-R cell growth is comparable to that observed in the absence of nucleoside. The growth inhibition produced by AIC-R is the consequence of inhibition of the orotate phosphoribosyltransferase-orotidylic decarboxylase (OPRT-ODC) reactions, as evidenced by a 87% reduction in the intracellular concentrations of UTP and CTP, accumulation of orotate in the medium, and restoration of normal growth by inclusion of 100 microM uridine in the medium. Inhibition of pyrimidine nucleotide synthesis at 200 microM AIC-R is associated with an 82% reduction in the intracellular concentration of PP-ribose-P and a 150% increase in the concentration of purine nucleotides. Restoration of cell growth to a normal rate at 700 microM AIC-R--a condition under which PP-ribose-P remains depressed and purine nucleotide concentrations are also depressed (40% of control)--and absence of toxicity at 50 microM AIC-R--a condition under which purine nucleotide concentrations are increased by 150% and PP-ribose-P concentration is normal--suggest that the inhibition of OPRT-ODC observed at 200 microM AIC-R is caused by the combination of the reduction in PP-ribose-P and increase in purine nucleotides. These studies provide a better understanding of the control of the OPRT-ODC reactions in the cell and provide additional insight into the basis of pyrimidine starvation induced by purine nucleosides.

Variant human phosphoribosylpyrophosphate synthetase altered in regulatory and catalytic functions

An inherited, structurally abnormal and superactive form of the enzyme 5-phosphoribosyl 1-pyrophosphate (PP-ribose-P) synthetase (EC 2.7.6.1) has been characterized in fibroblasts cultured from a 14-yr-old male (S.M.) with clinical manifestations of uric acid overproduction present since infancy. PP-ribose-P synthetase from the cells of this child showed four- to fivefold greater than normal resistance to purine nucleotide (ADP and GDP) feedback inhibition of enzyme activity and hyperbolic rather than sigmoidal inorganic phosphate (Pi) activation in incompletely dialyzed extracts. Excessive maximal velocity of the enzyme reaction catalyzed by the mutant enzyme was indicated by: enzyme activities twice those of normal at all concentrations of Pi in chromatographed fibroblast extracts; normal affinity constants for substrates and for the activator, Mg2+; and twofold greater than normal activity per immunoreactive enzyme molecule. The mutant enzyme thus possessed deficient regulatory and superactive catalytic properties, two mechanisms previously demonstrated individually to underlie the excessive PPRribose-P and uric acid synthesis of affected members of families with superactive PP-ribose-P synthetases. Increased PP-ribose-P concentration (4-fold) and generation (2.7-fold) and enhanced rates of PP-ribose-P dependent purine synthetic reactions, including purine synthesis de novo, in S.M. fibroblasts confirmed the functional significance of this patient's mutant enzyme. Diminished stability of the variant PP-ribose-P synthetase was manifested in vitro by increased thermal lability and in vivo by deficiency of enzyme activity at Pi concentrations greater than 0.3 mM in hemolysates and by an accelerated, age-related decrement in enzyme activity in lysates of erythrocytes separated by specific density. Despite the diminished amount of PP-ribose-P synthetase in the S.M. erythrocyte population, S.M. erythrocytes had increased PP-ribose-P concentration and increased rates of incorporation of [14C]adenine and hypoxanthine into acid-soluble nucleotides during incubation at 1 mM Pi. These findings provided further confirmation of the extent to which PP-ribose-P synthesis is modulated in the normal cell at physiological Pi concentration by purine nucleotide inhibition of PP-ribose-P synthetase. The activity and kinetic characteristics of PP-ribose-P synthetase from fibroblasts of the mother of patient S.M. indicated that this woman was a heterozygous carrier of the enzyme defect expressed in hemizygous manner by her son.

Disassembly of microtubules in the Lesch-Nyhan Syndrome? (Lesch-Nyhan syndrome and microtubules)

The Lesch-Nyhan syndrome is an unusual disease. It combines neurological disorders, behavioural disturbances, metabolic changes and haematological symptoms. The syndrome is caused by an X-chromosomal transmitted enzyme deficiency of the 'salvage pathway' in purine metabolism. The hitherto unexplained pathogenesis was the reason for investigations into metabolism and morphology of the blood cells of a patient suffering from the syndrome. Along with the defect in guanine nucleotide resynthesis there was a defect of microtubules in platelets and a sphaerocytosis in red cells, which could be the result of a disassembly of structural proteins. The development and maintenance of the highly heteromorphic structure of nerve cells and the neuronal function including axonal transport of cell organelles and transmitters is dependent on microtubules. Thus a disassembly of microtubules could be the mechanism in the pathogenesis of this complex syndrome.

Characterization of a guanine-sensitive mutant defective in adenylo-succinate synthetase activity

A contingent auxotrophic mutant of CHO-Kl cell is described. This mutant grows in minimal medium. Its growth is inhibited by the exogenous addition of guanine at levels which do not affect the wild type parent. Adenine reverses the guanine effect. This mutant does not complement ade-H (defective in adenylosuccinate synthetase) and has been denoted as ade-HG because of its guanine sensitivity. Some partial revertants of ade-H are found to be also sensitive to guanine, suggesting a close relationship between the ade-H locus and the guanine sensitivity. Studies of 14C-hypoxanthine incorporation into nucleotides indicated that ade-HG has some adenylosuccinate synthetase activity whether it is pre-exposed to guanine or not. Early de novo purine synthesis in ade-HG, however, is greatly inhibited when pre-exposed to guanine. This inhibition of purine synthesis by guanine is reversible and its recovery is facilitated by adenine.

Genetic heterogeneity of hypoxanthine-phosphoribosyl transferase in human fibroblasts of 3 families

Incorporation of hypoxanthine, resistance to 8-azaguanine and activation by lyophilisation have been studied in cultured human fibroblasts. Cells from one family where there was a boy with Lesch-Nyham syndrome, from two families with variant H-PRT mutations and three cell strains from patients with the Lesch-Nyham syndrome were investigated. Cells from patients with the Lesch-Nyham syndrome showed almost no hypoxanthine incorporation and resistance to concentrations of 8-azaguanine up to 10(-3) M, whereas cells of patients with partial H-PRT deficiency demonstrated variant patterns of hypoxanthine uptake and partial resistance to 8-azaguanine. Lyophilisation of fibroblast sediment from patients with the Lesch-Nyhan syndrome and patients with variant H-PRT mutations showed activation of the deficient or partially deficient H-PRT enzyme. No such activation was observed in healthy controls. Activation of lyophilised fibroblast extract from patients and controls was not obtained. These results suggest that H-PRT could be associated with the cell membranes.

Effects of inosine on purine synthesis in normal and HGPRT-deficient human fibroblasts

1. Incubation of normal and HGPRT-deficient fibroblasts with inosine results in increased PP-ribose-P concentrations. 2. The increased PP-ribose-P concentrations are accompanied by decreased rates of purine synthesis de novo, more marked in normal cells 3. Increased purine nucleotide concentrations during incubation with inosine provide a likely explanation for the inhibition of purine synthesis in normal cells 4. The lack of accelerated purine synthesis in mutant cells under these conditions is not fully explained by consideration of PP-ribose-P and purine nucleotide concentations.

Biochemical genetics of Chinese hamster cell mutants with deviant purine metabolism: isolation, selection, and characterization of a mutant lacking hypoxanthine-guanine phosphoribosyltransferase activity by nutritional means

Mutants of the Chinese hamster ovary cell derived from CHO-K1 have been selected for lack of hypoxanthine-guanine phosphoribosyltransferase (EC 2.4.2.8) (HGPRT) without the use of a drug-resistance protocol. The procedure depends on the use of a parental strain carrying a mutation making it unable to synthetize purines and thus dependent upon exogenously added purines for growth. The standard "BUdR-visible-light" procedure is then used to select those cells which can use adenine but cannot use hypoxanthine as a purine source. These cells are shown to be thioguanine resistant, to be unable to incorporate exogenously added hypoxanthine into purine nucleotides, to complement our other adenine-specific purine auxotrophs, Ade-H and Ade-I but not to complement a cell isolated by virtue of thioguanine resistance, and to lack the activity of HGPRT. The use of such multiply marked mutants and cells related to them for further analysis of purine nucleotide biosynthesis and interconversion is discussed.

Regulation of purine nucleotide synthesis. Effects of inosine on normal and hypoxantine-guanine phosphoribosyltransferase-deficient fibroblasts

Incubation of normal and hypoxanthine-guanine phosphoribosyltransferase-deficient (mutant) human fibroblasts with inosine results in increased intracellular concentration of 5-phosphoribosyl 1-pyrophosphate (PP-ribose-P). The magnitude of this increase is dependent on the concentration of the nucleoside and results from donation of the ribose moiety of inosine to the ribosyl phosphate moiety of PP-ribose-P through ribose phosphate intermediates. During incubation, rates of purine nucleotide synthesis de novo, estimated by incorporation of (14C) formate into formylglycinamide ribotide, are diminished in both normal and mutant cells: 5 mM inosine inhibits purine synthesis by 60-80% in normal cells and 2-20% in hypoxanthine-guanine phosphoribosyltransferase-deficient cells. The rates of purine synthesis in both normal and mutant cells are increased, however, during incubation with methylene blue at concentrations (50-100 muM) which result in more modest increases in ribose 5-phosphate and PP-ribose-P concentrations than are observed with inosine. Saturation of the PP-ribose-P amidotransferase reaction by PP-ribose-P does not appear, therefore, to explain the failure of increased PP-ribose-P concentration to stimulate the rate of purine synthesis in either type of fibroblast during incubation with inosine. Although the dissociation between PP-ribose-P concentration and the rate of purine nucleotide synthesis in normal fibroblasts incubated with inosine may be explained at least in part by an accompanying increase in intracellular concentrations of purine nucleotide feedback inhibitors, purine nucleotide concentrations are unchanged in mutant cells during incubation with inosine; these cells, in addition, show minimal (less than 3% of normal) incorporation of labeled hypoxanthine or the hypoxanthine moiety of inosine into purine nucleotides. The effect of inosine on purine synthesis de novo in hypoxanthine-guanine phosphoribosyltransferase-deficient fibroblasts is not explained in full by consideration of the concentrations of purine nucleotides and of PP-ribose-P, the factors frequently invoked as antagonistic regulators controlling the rate of this process.

Hypoxanthine-guanine phosphoribosyl transferase deficiency

In man congential lack of enzyme of the purine salvage system, hypoxanthineguanine phosphoribosyl transferase (HG-PRT E.C. 2.4.2.8), is mostly accompanied by a picture known as the Lesch-Nyhan snydrome. The degree of deficiency may vary from zero to a few percent of normal activity but a correlation between the severity of HG-PRT deficiency and the clinical picture has not been observed, no more than a correlation HG-PRT deficiency and neurological dysfunction. But individuals with undetectable HG-PRT activity but without the Lesch-Nyhan syndrome have been described. Patients with partial HG-PRT defiency have clinically distinctive findings. Sometimes mild neurological abnormalities are observed. Because of marked overproduction of ric acid severe gouty arthritis and renal dysfunction are often encountered in both complete and partial deficiency. There is considerable molecular heterogeneity in HG-PRT deficiency in man. Mutant ebnzymes may exhibit different kinetic and electrophoretic properties, indicating that hterwe might be a mutation on the structural gene coding for HG-PRT. Lack of HG-PRT disturbs purine interconversions profoundly. In addition to an important function of HG-PRT in the uptake of the purine hypoxantine and guanine into the cell, the effective uptake of inosine, guanosine and adenosine also seems to be dependent on HG-PRT...