[Recent progress in polyamine research].
Polyamines are recognized as cell growth factors in relation to cell proliferation, differentiation, regeneration and malignant transformation. Polyamines play an important role in the growth of normal cells like vascular endothelial cells and also exert various effects on the proliferation and metastasis of malignant cells. The recent studies on the biosynthesis have clearly elucidated its mechanism at the gane levels, which reflects to the development of the inhibitors of the polyamine biosynthesis. One of the main purposes of the studies on the various polyamine synthesis inhibitors is for the development of new anti-cancer agents, based on the characteristics of the polyamine functions. The clinical effects of several inhibitors, however, have not been shown to be satisfactory and the reason is now the most important research subject in this field. The measurement of the polyamine contents in biological fluids including urine and blood has been shown to be useful as the tumor marker. The recent studies have indicated that the mechanism of increased secretion of urinary polyamines is due to the release from the degraded cancer cells. The results now stimulated the research which aims to elucidate the usefulness of the measurement of urinary polyamines as the parameters of the sensitivity to the anticancer drugs in patients with cancer.
Ohsawa
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First Department of Internal Medicine, Osaka Medical College, Japan.
D015317:Biogenic Polyamines / Q000096:biosynthesis / Q000502:physiology / Q000652:urine*; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D002453:Cell Cycle / Q000187:drug effects; D002471:Cell Transformation, Neoplastic / Q000187:drug effects; D006801:Humans; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis*
D015317:Biogenic Polyamines; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor