Mechanism of Urate Production by Guinea-Pig Ileum

Abstract

Previous studies have demonstrated considerable efflux of purine consisting mostly uric acid but with smaller quantities of xanthine, hypoxanthine, inosine and adenosine) from isolated guinea-pig ileal segments (Webster et al., 1985). The aim of the present study was to further investigate the origin of these purines. Our earlier studies had shown that the purine efflux was accompanied by considerable weight loss of the tissue and the appearance in the bathing medium of the enzymes of purine degradation, adenosine deaminase, purine nucleoside Phosphorylase, and xanthine oxidase. As it has been suggested that muscle activity may be a cause of tissue enzyme release (Jones et al., 1983), the initial portion of the study investigated the effects of different stimulation conditions on muscle activity and purine release, while the second portion of the study was to investigate the biochemical origin of purines by the use of enzyme inhibitors.