Metabolism of caffeine to nucleic acid precursors in mammalian cells.
Caffeine is rapidly metabolized in human and mouse cells in culture by de-methylation: within 1-3 h of exposure to millimolar concentrations of labeled caffeine, more than 90% of the pool consists of labeled products of metabolism and less than 10% is still caffeine. The methyl groups seem to be transferred and used in the de novo synthesis of thymine, guanine, and adenine to nucleic acids. Normal fibroblasts, Lesch-Nyhan fibroblasts, xeroderma pigmentosum fibroblasts, HeLa cells, wild type mouse cells, and adenine phosphoribosyl-transferase-deficient mouse cells all seem to metabolize caffeine similarly.
D000818:Animals; D002110:Caffeine / Q000378:metabolism*; D006367:HeLa Cells / Q000378:metabolism; D006801:Humans; D007926:Lesch-Nyhan Syndrome / Q000378:metabolism; D051379:Mice; D009694:Nucleic Acid Precursors / Q000096:biosynthesis*; D014983:Xeroderma Pigmentosum / Q000378:metabolism
D009694:Nucleic Acid Precursors; D002110:Caffeine