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Department of Biology, University of York.

1. The absorption and metabolism of purine nucleosides and their constituent bases has been investigated by perfusion through the lumen of isolated loops of rat jejunum. In control perfusions and those with luminal purines or purine nucleosides, high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) revealed uric acid as the only detectable purine in the mucosal epithelial layer and the serosal secretions unless the xanthine oxidase inhibitor allopurinol was present. 2. Adenosine (0.5 mM) was quantitatively deaminated to inosine in the lumen after perfusion for 30 min. 3. Luminal inosine and hypoxanthine (0.15-1.0 mM) increased the serosal uric acid concentration significantly (P < 0.001); at 0.5 and 1.0 mM the nucleoside gave a significantly greater (P < 0.01) rate of serosal uric acid appearance than the base. 4. Luminal guanosine (0.05-0.50 mM) and guanine (0.05-0.15 mM) increased the serosal uric acid concentration significantly (P < 0.001); with 0.15 mM nucleoside the serosal uric acid appeared significantly faster (P < 0.01) than it did from the base. 5. Luminal allopurinol (0.3 mM) inhibited xanthine oxidase by 80% and reduced serosal purine appearance significantly (P < 0.01) from luminal guanine, hypoxanthine and inosine. With allopurinol, guanosine (0.1 and 0.15 mM) and inosine (0.1-1.0 mM) gave significantly higher (P < 0.01) total serosal purine concentrations than their respective bases. 6. Inosine and guanosine were cleaved to their respective bases plus ribose phosphate by the action of a cytoplasmic nucleoside phosphorylase, which was found to have widely different Michaelis constants (Km; 318 +/- 45 and 41.4 +/- 3.6 microM for inosine and guanosine, respectively) and maximum velocities (Vmax; 79.3 +/- 4.0 and 20.5 +/- 0.05 mumol min-1 (mg protein)-1 for inosine and guanosine, respectively). 7. We conclude that hypoxanthine and guanine absorbed by rat small intestine are oxidized to uric acid which is released in the serosa. The corresponding nucleosides are split by phosphorolysis after absorption and the resulting purine bases are converted to uric acid which appears on the serosal side with similar quantities of ribose phosphate.

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