Rapid and Simple Technique for the Quantitation of Polyamines in Biological Samples

Polyamines as cancer markers: applicable separation methods

Spermine, spermidine, putrescine and cadaverine are aliphatic amines widely spread in the human body. Their concentrations together with their acetyl conjugates increase significantly in the biological fluids and the affected tissues of cancer patients. Their concentrations decrease with the improvement in the patient's condition on multiple therapy. Various chromatographic techniques are frequently used in monitoring concentrations of di- and polyamines in cancer. Among these techniques, thin-layer chromatography and liquid chromatography using pre- or postcolumn derivatization, separating on a reversed-phase or an ion-exchange column are the most commonly used. Besides, high-resolution capillary column gas chromatography (GC) is increasingly used over packed column GC, and in recent years, capillary zone electrophoresis has also gained some importance in polyamine determinations. The review examines the prospects and the limitations of polyamines as cancer markers using chromatographic and electrophoretic techniques.

Increased urinary polyamine excretion in unselected cancer patients related to host factors

Unselected patients with solid malignant tumours were investigated in order to determine whether they displayed elevated urinary excretion of polyamines; and if so, whether polyamine excretion in such patients predicts disease progression, or is secondary to host and systemic factors. Thirty-eight male and female patients with generalized solid, mainly gastrointestinal, malignant tumours were investigated. Ten male patients operated on for infrarenal aortic aneurysms and 15 otherwise healthy male and female patients hospitalized for minor surgical procedures served as reference patients, representing individuals with and without metabolic stress. Urine samples were collected from all patients during 24 h for measurement of both total and individual excretion of polyamines during three consecutive days. Polyamine excretion was not significantly increased in cancer patients when compared by analysis of variance among the three patient groups. However, polyamine excretion was significantly elevated in both cancer and stressed, non-cancer patients compared with patients without stress (p < 0.05). A multivariate analysis indicated that plasma protein and albumin concentrations, abnormal liver function tests and liver metastasis predicted variation in polyamine excretion in cancer patients (p < 0.01), but this was unrelated to survival. Our results demonstrate that increased polyamine excretion in cancer patients is related more to host factors than to tumour growth itself.

Automated determination of polyamines by high-performance liquid chromatography with simple sample preparation

Recently, a new fully endcapped reversed-phase packing material, Inertsil, was introduced, especially suitable for the determination of basic compounds. We used this packing material to separate ophthaldialdehyde (OPA) derivatives of amino acid derivatives completely from the OPA derivatives of spermine (SPM), spermidine (SPD), putrescine (PUT) and cadaverine (CAD). The obtained separation made the commonly used off-line extraction procedure redundant and thus an on-line sample clean-up was introduced. This enabled automation of the procedure resulting in a better reproducibility and a more efficient use of equipment. Furthermore, no studies are required to determine the extraction recovery. The present method has a cycle time of 30 min. A linear response for each polyamine was found up to 250 pmol, with an R2 ranging from 0.9981 (SPM) to 0.9998 (CAD). The limit of detection, calculated at a signal-to-noise ratio of 3, was 0.1 pmol, corresponding to a plasma concentration of 0.1 mumol/l. The coefficient of variation (C.V.) for the peak area was below 3% and for retention times below 0.5% (n = 15). In order to evaluate the applicability of the method, three different types of sample were chromatographed, e.g. urine (obtained from healthy human volunteers), pig plasma and sulfosalicylic acid homogenates of pig intestine biopsies. Tissue homogenates and urine-specimen could easily be quantitated, while plasma concentrations were just above the limit of detection, resulting in a plasma C.V. ranging from 4.8% (SPM) to 13.6% (SPD) and a tissue C.V. ranging from 2.1% (SPM) to 8.5% (CAD), The urinary C.V.s were not determined. In conclusion, the present method provides an easy way to measure polyamine concentrations for most applications.

Ornithine decarboxylase activity in mouse tumour tissue in response to refeeding and diet components

Ornithine decarboxylase (ODC) and S-adenosylmethionine decarboxylase activity (SAMD) were measured in tumour tissue in mice during periods of starvation (24 h) and refeeding. Starvation led to a 60% reduction in tumour ODC activity. Refeeding normalised the activity within 4 h. Restitution in ODC activity, representing de novo enzyme synthesis, preceded DNA resynthesis. SAMD activity continued to fall along the increase in ODC activity during refeeding, while difluoro-methyl-ornithine (DFMO) caused a compensatory increase in SAMD activity as expected. A fall and regain in ODC activity was associated with inhibition and regrowth of the tumour. Starvation-refeeding was not related to any decrease in tumour polyamine concentrations, while systemic DFMO blockade was. Glucose stimulated ODC when refed orally, but not when given systemically. Tumour ODC activity was not decreased in refed mice by anti-insulin, a procedure that antagonised insulin's bioactivity. Exogenous insulin did not stimulate tumour ODC activity. Our results suggest that gastrointestinal metabolism of carbohydrates stimulates the release of a factor, which initiates both ODC activity and DNA synthesis in tumour cells. This factor was not insulin.

Essential role for polyamine biosynthesis in thyroxine stimulated pancreatic development in neonatal rats

Administration of thyroxine to rat pups leads to precocious development of the pancreas. The role of ornithine decarboxylase (ODC) and polyamines in thyroxine-induced pancreatic maturation was examined. Rat pups (aged 5 days) were given daily subcutaneous injection of thyroxine (0.1 micrograms/g body wt.) until the day before death. Serial ODC activities were measured in pancreatic homogenates after 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 10 days of thyroxine treatment. There was a biphasic induction of ODC activities by thyroxine: an early peak appeared on day 2 of treatment followed by a decrease on day 4; a second peak was evident on day 5 and then a decrease to control values by day 7. Significant increases in tissue concentrations of putrescine and spermidine were observed concomitant with two peaks of ODC activity. Pancreatic amylase concentration, DNA and protein also showed a significant increase after thyroxine treatment. Difluoromethyl ornithine (DFMO), a specific ODC inhibitor, given orally (8% in drinking water) to nursing dams at postnatal day 5 for 5 days caused an 83% inhibition of pancreatic ODC activity in thyroxine-treated pups when compared to thyroxine-treated pups not exposed to DFMO. Concomitantly, the thyroxine-induced increases in pancreatic weight, protein and amylase activity were suppressed. Our results suggest that increases in ODC activities and polyamine levels are critical intermediary steps in the precocious induction of pancreatic development by thyroxine.

Development of an HPLC assay for the analysis of tetrafluoroputrescine--a putrescine analog

A simple reverse-phase liquid chromatographic system with ultraviolet detection at 254 nm for tetrafluoroputrescine (TFP), a putrescine analog, is described. The assay involves precolumn derivatization of TFP with dansyl chloride at pH 6.8-7.5 at 60 degrees C, followed by separation from putrescine (PUT) and quantitation. The derivatization procedure was adapted for the simultaneous analysis of TFP and PUT in whole blood components. Also, preliminary studies on protein binding of TFP are reported.

Detection by high-performance liquid chromatography of polyamines formed by clostridial putrefaction of caseins

Casein incorporated in building materials is degraded by species of alkali-tolerant Clostridia. A whole range of compounds have previously been detected in degraded building materials containing casein as an additive by gas chromatography (GC), including volatile and non-volatile organic acids, alcohols, ketones, aldehydes and monoamines. Using high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) it was possible, however, also to detect polyamines formed in degraded caseins. Histamine, agmatine, serotonine, tyramine, tryptamine, putrescine and cadaverine were detected in solutions containing casein in which the alkali-tolerant Clostriadia had been grown. Uninoculated, sterile incubated caseins contained no detectable amounts of polyamines. This gives clear evidence of the role of the biotic environment in the degradation of caseins. A combination of GC and HPLC therefore, provides a convenient set of techniques for studying the degradation products of casein.

Quantitation of polyamines in cultured cells and tissue homogenates by reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography of their benzoyl derivatives

A rapid and simple method, originally described by Redmond and Tseng [J. Chromatogr., 170 (1979) 479] was applied to the analysis of di- and polyamines in cultured human tumour cells and human tumour xenografts. Optimization of the procedures and evaluation of the characteristic features of the assay are described. The (modified) procedure employs precolumn derivatization with benzoyl chloride, extraction of the derivatives by chloroform, separation by reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography under isocratic conditions and detection by ultraviolet absorbance measurement at 229 nm. The complete analysis was accomplished within 10 min per sample. The detection limit was ca. 1 pmol. The intra- and inter-assay coefficients of variation were 2.5-4.4% and 3.4-13.1%, respectively. The presence of well known inhibitors of polyamine biosynthesis, such as DL-alpha-difluoromethylornithine and methylglyoxal bis(guanylhydrazone), did not interfere with the assay, and disturbance by cyclohexylamine could be avoided by changing the polarity of the mobile phase. The method proved to be very suitable because it is rapid, simple, requires a minimum of sample pretreatment, and still provides sufficient sensitivity to quantitate polyamines in relatively small amounts of cells (10(5) cells) or tumour tissues (less than 1 mg), even after treatment with inhibitors of polyamine biosynthesis.