ADENOSINE-DEAMINASE, 5'-NUCLEOTIDASE, GUANASE AND CYTIDINE DEAMINASE ACTIVITIES IN GASTRIC TISSUES FROM PATIENTS WITH GASTRIC-CANCER

The activities of some of the enzymes participating in nucleotide meta bolism were measured in cancerous and noncancerous gastric tissues fro m patients with gastric cancer. The enzyme activities measured were fo und to be higher in the cancerous tissues than in the non-cancerous ti ssues. Adenosine deaminase (ADA), 5'-nucleotidase (5'-NT), guanase (GU A) and cytidine deaminase (CD) activites in the cancerous tissues were 56.0 +/- 24.0, 45.0 +/- 20.0, 0.34 +/- 0.16 and 4.65 +/- 2.04, respec tively. The activities in non-cancerous tissues were 13.2 +/- 6.0, 19. 8 +/- 8.3, 0.12 +/- 0.06 and 1.65 +/- 0.8, respectively. Cancerous tis sues consisted of 7 gastric tissues with Grade I-II and 8 tissues with Grade III-IV adeno cancer. Non-cancerous adjacant tissues were obtain ed from the same patients with Grade I-II cancer. There were no meanin gful differences between enzyme activities of the gastric tissues with Grade I-II and Grade III-IV cancer. Enzyme activity ratios indicates that ADA activity increased by the highest amount relative to other en zyme activities in the cancerous tissues. In the correlation analysis, we found positive correlations between some of the enzyme activities in the cancerous tissues. Results suggest that increased activities of these enzymes might play a part in the accelerated nucleotide metabol ism in the cancerous gastric tissues.