title: Activities of purine pathway enzymes in gouty human fibroblasts aged in vitro.
abstract: The finite life-span of fibroblasts in culture may reflect aging at the cellular level and gout is clinical condition whose incidence also increases with age. In order to better understand the age-related changes in purine metabolism, activities of purine degrading (adenosine deaminase and 5'-nucleotidase) and reutilizing (adenine phosphoribosyltransferase, hypoxanthine phosphoribosyl-transferase and adenosine kinase) enzymes were measured in serially cultured skin fibroblasts from normal subjects and from gouty patients who overproduce uric acid. Serially cultured fibroblasts from gouty overproducers of uric acid displayed increased purine enzyme levels with increasing cell passage while fibroblasts from normal donors showed little change in activity. There was no alteration in relative degrading and reutilizing enzyme levels. The data suggest an increase in the rate of purine turnover in aging gouty fibroblasts compared with normal fibroblasts.
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002470:Cell Survival; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D005347:Fibroblasts / Q000201:enzymology; D006073:Gout / Q000201:enzymology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011687:Purines / Q000378:metabolism*; D012867:Skin / Q000166:cytology / Q000201:enzymology; D013997:Time Factors
chemical_list: D011687:Purines