ACTIVITY OF THE ENZYMES PARTICIPATING IN PURINE METABOLISM OF CANCEROUS AND NONCANCEROUS HUMAN KIDNEY TISSUES

In this study, activity of some of the key enzymes participating in pu rine metabolism was measured in cancerous and noncancerous human kidne y tissues from 18 patients with renal cell carcinoma. Twelve cancerous tissues were at stage T-1-T-2 and 6 tissues were at stage T-3-T-4. Ad enosine deaminase (ADA) and guanase (GUA) activity was increased and x anthine oxidase (XO) activity decreased in cancerous tissues compared to noncancerous ones. No difference was, however, found between 5'-Nuc leotidase (5'-NT) activity of the tissues. There were also no statisti cally meaningful differences between the enzyme activities of the canc erous tissues at stage T1-2 and T3-4. Results suggest that the changes observed in the activity of the enzymes participating in purine metab olism result from accelerated DNA turnover in the cancerous tissues an d cells, and these changes might provide selective advantage, possibly by causing acceleration of salvage pathway activity, to the cancer ce lls to grow and develop more rapidly.