Purine metabolism after in vivo ischemia and reperfusion in rat skeletal muscle.

An in vivo rat hindlimb tourniquet ischemia model was used to study the purine nucleotide metabolism in response to 2, 4, and 6 h of ischemia and to the same ischemia periods followed by 1 h of reperfusion. All purine intermediates from ATP to uric acid were determined in skeletal muscle with a high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) system. The major metabolic event during ischemia is to temporarily save the nucleotide pool as inosine-5'-monophosphate (IMP. On restitution of the circulation as the energy state recovers, the IMP is converted back to AMP via the purine nucleotide cycle. Six hours of ischemia is associated with irreversible damage and no recovery fo the adenine nucleotides on reperfusion. Fast-twitch muscles appear to be more susceptible than slow-twitch muscles in response to ischemia and reperfusion. A severalfold increase of intracellular hypoxanthine occurred during ischemia, whereas uric acid formation is observed only after reperfusion. These findings are discussed in relation to the proposed role of xanthine oxidase, as an enzyme generating tissue-injurious oxygen free radicals.