Regulation of purine nucleotide synthesis in human B lymphoblasts with both hypoxanthine-guanine phosphoribosyltransferase deficiency and phosphoribosylpyrophosphate synthetase superactivity.

Human B lymphoblast lines severely deficient in hypoxanthine-guanine phosphoribosyltransferase (HGPRT) were selected for resistance to 6-thioguanine from cloned normal and phosphoribosylpyrophosphate (PP-Rib-P) synthetase-superactive cell lines and were compared with their respective parental cell lines with regard to growth and PP-Rib-P and purine nucleotide metabolism. During blockade of purine synthesis de novo with 6-methylthioinosine or aminopterin, inhibition of growth of all HGPRT-deficient cell lines was refractory to addition of Ade at concentrations which restored substantial growth to parental cell lines. Ade-resistant inhibition of growth of parental lines by 6-methylthioinosine, however, occurred during Ado deaminase inhibition. Insufficient generation of IMP (and ultimately guanylates) to support growth of lymphoblasts lacking HGPRT activity and blocked in purine synthesis de novo best explained these findings, implying that a major route of interconversion of AMP to IMP involves the reaction sequence: AMP----Ado----Ino----Hyp----IMP. PP-Rib-P generation and purine nucleoside triphosphate pools were unchanged by introduction of HGPRT deficiency into normal lymphoblast lines, in agreement with the view that accelerated purine synthesis de novo in this deficiency results from increased availability of PP-Rib-P for the pathway. Cell lines with dual enzyme defects did not differ from PP-Rib-P synthetase-superactive parental lines in rates of PP-Rib-P and purine synthesis despite 5-6-fold increases in PP-Rib-P concentrations, excretion of nearly 50% of newly synthesized purines, and diminished GTP concentrations. Fixed rates of purine synthesis de novo in PP-Rib-P synthetase-superactive cells appeared to reflect saturation of the rate-limiting amidophosphoribosyltransferase reaction for PP-Rib-P. In combination with accelerated purine excretion, increased channeling of newly formed purines into adenylates, and impaired conversion of AMP to IMP, fixed rates of purine synthesis de novo may condition cell lines with defects in HGPRT and PP-Rib-P synthetase to depletion of GTP with consequent growth retardation.     

Relationships among purine nucleoside metabolism, adenosine triphosphate catabolism, and glycolysis in human erythrocytes.

In human erythrocytes incubated with both naturally occurring purine nucleosides and with a variety of purine nucleoside analogs, ATP catabolism was accelerated and lactate accumulation was increased. Tubercidin was a particularly potent inducer of ATP catabolism. In cells incubated with tubercidin, the major route of adenylate metabolism was deamination, whereas in cells incubated with deoxyglucose, the major pathway was dephosphorylation.     

Biochemical genetics of Chinese hamster cell mutants with deviant purine metabolism III. Isolation and characterization of a mutant unable to convert IMP to AMP.

The isolation and characterization of a new mutant of Chinese ovary cells (CHO-K1) is described. This mutant, Ade-H, has the following properties: (1) it forms a new genetic complementation group; (2) it specifically requires adenine for growth and will not grow on aminoimidazole carboxamide (AIC) or hypoxanthine; (3) it accumulates IMP; (4) it cannot synthesize adenine nucleotides; (5) its phenotype can be mimicked by treatment of CHO-K1 (the wild type parental strain) with hadacidin, an inhibitor of adenylosuccinate synthetase (E.C.6.3.4.4). Thus, the site of the defect in this mutant is presumed to involve the step in adenylate biosynthesis catalyzed by this enzyme. The usefulness of Ade-H for the study of regulation of purine biosynthesis in mammalian cells is discussed.     

A comparison of purine metabolism and nucleotide pools in normal and hypoxanthine-guanine phosphoribosyltransferase-deficient neuroblastoma cells

Purine nucleotide synthesis and interconversion were examined over a range of purine base and nucleoside concentrations in intact N4 and N4TG (hypoxanthine-guanine phosphoribosyltransferase (HGPRT) deficient) neuroblastoma cells. Adenosine was a better nucleotide precursor than adenine, hypoxanthine or guanine at concentrations greater than 100 μM. With hypoxanthine or guanine, N4TG cells had less than 2% the rate of nucleotide synthesis of N4 cells. At substrate concentrations greater than 100 μM the rates for deamination of adenosine and phosphorolysis of guanosine exceeded those for any reaction of nucleotide synthesis. Labelled inosine and guanosine accumulated from hypoxanthine and guanine, respectively, in HGPRT-deficient cells and the nucleosides accumulated to a greater extent in N4 cells indicating dephosphorylation of newly synthesized IMP and GMP to be quantitatively significant. A deficiency of xanthine oxidase, guanine deaminase and guanosine kinase activities was found in neuroblastoma cells. Hypoxanthine was a source for both adenine and guanine nucleotides, whereas adenine or guanine were principally sources for adenine (>85%) or guanine (>90%) nucleotides, respectively. The rate of [¹⁴C]formate incorporation into ATP, GTP and nucleic acid purines was essentially equivalent for both N4 and N4TG cells. Purine nucleotide pools were also comparable in both cell lines, but the concentration of UDP-sugars was 1.5 times greater in N4TG than N4 cells.     

Biochemical genetics of Chinese hamster cell mutants with deviant purine metabolism: biochemical analysis of eight mutants.

Purine biosynthesis was studied in 8 mutants of Chinese hamster cells which require purines for growth and in wild-type cells which do not show this nutritional requirement. Of these, 6 mutants, ade-B, ade-D, ade-E, ade-F, GAT-, and AT-, were shown to accumulate metabolic intermediates not accumulated by wild-type cells. These intermediates were shown to be compounds unique to the adenylic acid biosynthetic pathway by the following criteria: (a) their radioisotopic labeling properties, (b) their response to agents which specifically inhibit known enzymatic steps in the pathway, (c) their chromatographic properties, and (d) spectrophotometric analysis. Two mutants, ade-A and ade-C, accumulate no detectable compounds not accumulated by the wild type. These 2 mutants are believed to be defective in steps very early in the purine biosynthetic pathway. The sites of the defects in the other mutants are proposed, and the usefulness of these mutants is discussed.     

Characterization of analog resistance and purine metabolism of adult rat-liver epithelial cell 8-azaguanine-resistant mutants

Adult rat-liver epithelial cultures were sensitive to the lethal effects of 8-azaguanine (AG), but lines contained variants resistant to AG. The frequency of retrievable AG-resistant colonies varied with both the concentration of AG used and the seeding density of the population under selection. Cells resistant to AG were also cross-resistant to 6-thioguanine and unable to grow in medium containing hypoxanthine, aminopterin and thymidine. Resistance was stable. AG resistance was due to a deficiency of hypoxanthine-guanine phosphoribosyl transferase (HGPRTase) activity which was not caused by an inhibitor. In the assay for HGPRTase, a substantial amount of product appeared as inosine (In) in addition to inosine monophosphate (IMP). Purine nucleoside phosphorylase will generate In from hypoxanthine and, indeed, the cells did possess this activity. However, several findings indicated that the In was derived from IMP by catabolism by 5'-nucleotidase (NTase): (1) IMP decreased as In increased and (2) the inhibitors of NTase, adenosine monophosphate and thymidine triphosphate, reduced the generation of In by over 90% without inhibiting purine nucleoside phosphorylase. The cells possessed substantial NTase activity, 35% of which was located in the cytosol along with 69% of HGPRTase. Several lines of evidence suggested that the NTase activity limited the amount of 8-azaguanylic acid presented to the cells by catabolising the nucleotide and, thereby, reducing the toxicity of available AG.     

Maple syrup urine disease: Branched-chain amino acid concentrations and metabolism in cultured human lymphoblasts

The intracellular concentration of free leucine, isoleucine, and valine and their metabolism were studied in lymphoblast cultures established from peripheral blood of an individual with maple syrup urine disease (MSUD) and a control subject. Branched-chain -keto acid decarboxylase activity in the MSUD cells was 10% or less of the control value as measured by the ability of the cells to release ¹⁴CO₂ from the corresponding [1-¹⁴C]labeled branched-chain amino acid. The intracellular concentrations of free leucine and isoleucine were increased three-fold in MSUD lymphoblasts as compared to control cells. Free valine was present in only trace amounts of less than 0.1 mMin both cell lines. Exposure of normal and mutant cells to a 10 mMload of leucine, isoleucine, and valine resulted in a comparable concentration within cells after 24 hr. Concentrations returned to base values in normal cells 12 hr after removal of load, but leucine remained elevated in MSUD cells after 3 days. Leucine and its keto acid, -ketoisocaproic acid, added to the culture medium gave significant growth inhibition of MSUD lymphoblasts but not of normal cells, in the millimolar range. Isoleucine, valine, and their keto acids had no effect.This investigation was supported in part by Grants AM-13622, AM-05646, and GM-17702 from the United States Public Health Service, Veterans Administration Grant M.R.I.S. No. 3181 to Dr. Nathan Gochman, and grants from the National Foundation and the Kroc Foundation. S. D. S. is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow supported by United States Public Health Service Training Grant AM-05646.     

Extracellular purine metabolism and signaling of CD73-derived adenosine in murine Treg and Teff cells

CD73-derived adenosine acts as potent inhibitor of inflammation, and regulatory T cells (Treg) have been shown to express CD73 as a novel marker. This study explored the role of endogenously formed adenosine in modulating NF-κB activity and cytokine/chemokine release from murine Treg and effector T cells (Teff) including key enzymes/purinergic receptors of extracellular ATP catabolism. Stimulating murine splenocytes and CD4(+) T cells with anti-CD3/anti-CD28 significantly upregulated activated NF-κB in CD73(-/-) T cells (wild type: 4.36 ± 0.21; CD73(-/-): 6.58 ± 0.75; n = 4; P = 0.029). This was associated with an augmented release of proinflammatory cytokines IL-2, TNF-α, and IFN-γ. Similar changes were observed with the CD73 inhibitor APCP (50 μM) on NF-κB and IFN-γ in wild-type CD4(+) T-cells. Treatment of stimulated CD4(+) T-cells with adenosine (25 μM) potently reduced IFN-γ release which is mediated by adenosine A2a receptors (A2aR). AMP (50 μM) also reduced cytokine release which was not inhibited by APCP. In Teff, A2aR activation (CGS21680) potently inhibited the release of IL-1, IL-2, IL-3, IL-4, IL-12, IL-13, IFN-γ, TNF-α, granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF), CCL3, and CCL4. However, in Treg, CGS21680 did not alter cytokine/chemokine release. In summary, CD73-derived adenosine tonically inhibits active NF-κB in CD4(+) T-cells, thereby modulating the release of a broad spectrum of proinflammatory cytokines and chemokines. Downregulation of P2X7 and upregulation of CD73 in Treg after antigenic stimulation may be an important mechanism to maintain the ability of Treg to generate immunosuppressive adenosine.     

Pathways of purine metabolism in human adipocytes. Further evidence against a role of adenosine as an endogenous regulator of human fat cell function

Previous results demonstrated that the adenosine that accumulates in human fat cell suspensions is derived from extracellular sources (Kather, H. (1988) J. Biol. Chem. 263, 8803-8809). To get insight into the mechanisms responsible for the lack of adenosine release, extracellular adenine nucleotide catabolism was minimized by 10 mmol/liter beta-glycerophosphate and 10 mumol/liter alpha,beta-methyleneadenosine 5'-diphosphate. Intracellular adenine nucleotide catabolism resulted in a release of inosine and hypoxanthine under these conditions that was increased markedly by isoproterenol. Experiments with inhibitors of adenosine deaminase and adenosine kinase indicated that the production of inosine and hypoxanthine proceeded via AMP deamination. Consistently, IMP levels were increased transiently in the presence of isoproterenol. In addition, the cells possessed a nucleotide phosphomonoesterase that was resistant to the inhibitory actions of ATP and alpha,beta-methyleneadenosine 5'-diphosphate and showed preference for IMP over AMP. Adenosine (approximately 1 nmol/10(6) cells/h) was also produced inside the cells. However, adenosine production was unrelated to ATP turnover via adenylate cyclase, and any adenosine formed was immediately reconverted to adenine nucleotides in the absence and presence of isoproterenol. It was concluded that adenosine is not released by intact human adipocytes, because the alternative routes of intracellular AMP catabolism are compartmentalized (at least in functional terms), and adenosine kinase is not saturated with substrate in the absence and presence of isoproterenol.     

Differential cardioprotection with selective inhibitors of adenosine metabolism and transport: Role of purine release in ischemic and reperfusion injury

In a previous report, we have demonstrated that simultaneous inhibition of nucleoside transport and adenosine deaminase accumulates endogenous adenosine and protects the myocardium against stunning. The differential cardioprotective effects of erythro-9(2-hydroxy-3-nonyl)-adenine (EHNA), a potent inhibitor of adenosine deamination but not transport, and p-nitrobenzylthioinosine (NBMPR), a selective blocker of adenosine and inosine transport, are not known.Thirty-seven anaesthetized adult dogs were instrumented to monitor left ventricular performance using sonomicrometery. Dogs were randomly assigned into four groups. The control group (n = 8) received only the vehicle solution. Treated groups received saline containing 100 M EHNA (EHNA-group, n = 7), 25 M NBMPR (NBMPR-group, n = 7), or a combination of 100 M EHNA and 25 M NBMPR (EHNA/NBMPR-group, n = 10). Hearts were subjected to 30 min of normothermic global ischaemia and 60 min of reperfusion while on bypass. Adenine nucleotides, nucleosides, oxypurines and NAD⁺ were determined in extracts of transmural myocardial biopsies using HPLC. TTC staining revealed the absence of necrosis in this model.Drug administration did not affect myocardial ATP metabolism and cardiac function in the normal myocardium. Ischemia caused about 50% ATP depletion and accumulation of nucleosides. The ratio between adenosine/inosine at the end of ischemia was 1:10, 1:1, 1:1 and 10:1 in the control, EHNA-, NBMPR- and EHNA/NBMPR-group, respectively. Upon reperfusion, both nucleosides washed out from the myocardium in the control and EHNA-group while retained in the myocardium in the NBMPR and EHNA/NBMPR groups. Ventricular dysfunction 'stunning' persisted in the control group (52%) and in the EHNA-treated group (32%) after 30 min of reperfusion. Significant improvement of function was observed in the EHNA group only after 60 min of reperfusion. LV function recovered in the NBMPR- and EHNA/NBMPR-treated groups during reperfusion. ATP recovery occurred only when animals were pretreated with the combination of EHNA/NBMPR and remained depressed in the control group and EHNA and NBMPR-treated groups. At post mortem, TTC staining revealed the absence of myocardial necrosis.Superior myocardial protection was observed with inhibition of nucleoside transport by NBMPR alone or in combination with inhibition of adenosine deaminase by EHNA. Selective blockade of nucleoside transport by NBMPR is more cardioprotective than inhibition of adenosine deaminase alone in attenuating myocardial stunning. It is not known why EHNA partially inhibit adenosine deaminase, in vivo.     

A set of procedures for resolving purine compounds by reversed-phase high performance liquid chromatography: application to the study of purine nucleotide and nucleic acid metabolism

A set of simple procedures for the separation of major purine 5'-ribonucleotides including diguanosine polyphosphates, purine and pyrimidine bases, and 2'- and 3'-nucleotide monophosphates using reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography and isocratic elution study of purine nucleotide and nucleic acid biosynthesis in Artemia is presented.     

Elucidation of xenobiotic metabolism pathways in human skin and human skin models by proteomic profiling

Background

Human skin has the capacity to metabolise foreign chemicals (xenobiotics), but knowledge of the various enzymes involved is incomplete. A broad-based unbiased proteomics approach was used to describe the profile of xenobiotic metabolising enzymes present in human skin and hence indicate principal routes of metabolism of xenobiotic compounds. Several in vitro models of human skin have been developed for the purpose of safety assessment of chemicals. The suitability of these epidermal models for studies involving biotransformation was assessed by comparing their profiles of xenobiotic metabolising enzymes with those of human skin.

Methodology/Principal Findings

Label-free proteomic analysis of whole human skin (10 donors) was applied and analysed using custom-built PROTSIFT software. The results showed the presence of enzymes with a capacity for the metabolism of alcohols through dehydrogenation, aldehydes through dehydrogenation and oxidation, amines through oxidation, carbonyls through reduction, epoxides and carboxylesters through hydrolysis and, of many compounds, by conjugation to glutathione. Whereas protein levels of these enzymes in skin were mostly just 4–10 fold lower than those in liver and sufficient to support metabolism, the levels of cytochrome P450 enzymes were at least 300-fold lower indicating they play no significant role. Four epidermal models of human skin had profiles very similar to one another and these overlapped substantially with that of whole skin.

Conclusions/Significance

The proteomics profiling approach was successful in producing a comprehensive analysis of the biotransformation characteristics of whole human skin and various in vitro skin models. The results show that skin contains a range of defined enzymes capable of metabolising different classes of chemicals. The degree of similarity of the profiles of the in vitro models indicates their suitability for epidermal toxicity testing. Overall, these results provide a rational basis for explaining the fate of xenobiotics in skin and will aid chemical safety testing programmes.     

Biochemical genetics of Chinese hamster cell mutants with deviant purine metabolism. VI. Enzymatic studies of two mutants unable to convert inosinic acid to adenylic acid

Ade^–H and ade^–I are two auxotrophic mutants of Chinese hamster ovary (CHO-K1) cells which specifically require adenine as the purine source to grow. The enzymatic defects of these mutants were examined in cell-free extracts. It was found that ade^–H did not have any detectable adenylosuccinate synthetase activity and ade^–I was defective in the adenylosuccinate lyase enzyme. The relevance of adenine-requiring mutants to the study of the regulation of purine metabolism in mammalian cells is discussed.This work was supported by research grants from the National Institute of Aging (AG00029) and the National Foundation, March of Dimes (1-423), and by a contract from the Center for Toxicological Research, Food and Drug Administration (72-213). David Patterson is a recipient of a Research Career Development Award from the National Institute of Arthritis, Metabolic and Digestive Diseases (AM00044).Contribution (No. 218) from the Eleanor Roosevelt Institute for Cancer Research.     

Characterization of the N6-etheno-bridge method to assess extracellular metabolism of adenine nucleotides: detection of a possible role for purine nucleoside phosphorylase in adenosine metabolism

Purinergic Signalling - The goal of this study was to determine the validity of using N6-etheno-bridged adenine nucleotides to evaluate ecto-nucleotidase activity. We observed that the metabolism...     

Lysophosphatidylcholine metabolism to 1,2-diacylglycerol in lymphoblasts: involvement of a phosphatidylcholine-hydrolyzing phospholipase C

We have previously described the chemoattraction of lymphoblasts by lysophosphatidylcholine [Hoffman, R. D., et al. (1982) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 79, 3285-3289]. In studying the mechanism of chemoattraction it was found that lysophosphatidylcholine was metabolized to 1,2-diacylglycerol by the lymphoblastic cell line 6C3HED. One route of metabolism involves the acylation of lysophosphatidylcholine to phosphatidylcholine with subsequent hydrolysis to 1,2-diacylglycerol and phosphocholine by the action of phospholipase C. The increase in cellular 1,2-diacylglycerol was established by metabolic experiments using [14C]glycerol-labeled lysophosphatidylcholine and by mass measurements of 1,2-diacylglycerol. The presence of a phosphatidylcholine-hydrolyzing phospholipase C was confirmed in 6C3HED cell homogenates. In intact cells, lysophosphatidylcholine induced a pattern of protein phosphorylation similar to those of 1,2-dioctanoylglycerol and phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate, two known activators of protein kinase C. This pathway of lysophosphatidylcholine metabolism, which involves a phosphatidylcholine-hydrolyzing phospholipase C, may be important in the activation of protein kinase C independent of inositol phospholipid hydrolysis.     

Genetic and physiological characterization of Bacillus subtilis mutants resistant to purine analogs.

Bacillus subtilis mutants defective in purine metabolism have been isolated by selecting for resistance to purine analogs. Mutants resistant to 2-fluoroadenine were found to be defective in adenine phosphoribosyltransferase (apt) activity and slightly impaired in adenine uptake. By making use of apt mutants and mutants defective in adenosine phosphorylase activity, it was shown that adenine deamination is an essential step in the conversion of both adenine and adenosine to guanine nucleotides. Mutants resistant to 8-azaguanine, pbuG mutants, appeared to be defective in hypoxanthine and guanine transport and normal in hypoxanthine-guanine phosphoribosyltransferase activity. Purine auxotrophic pbuG mutants grew in a concentration-dependent way on hypoxanthine, while normal growth was observed on inosine as the purine source. Inosine was taken up by a different transport system and utilized after conversion to hypoxanthine. Two mutants resistant to 8-azaxanthine were isolated: one was defective in xanthine phosphoribosyltransferase (xpt) activity and xanthine transport, and another had reduced GMP synthetase activity. The results obtained with the various mutants provide evidence for the existence of specific purine base transport systems. The genetic lesions causing the mutant phenotypes, apt, pbuG, and xpt, have been located on the B. subtilis linkage map at 243, 55, and 198 degrees, respectively.