Interrelation between nucleotide degradation and aldehyde formation in red blood cells. Influence of xanthine oxidase on metabolism: an application of nucleotide and aldehyde analyses by high-performance liquid chromatography.

The mechanism by which hypoxia leads to irreversible cellular damage is poorly understood. A decrease in purine nucleotides is common to all ischaemic tissues, yielding hypoxanthine as the substrate of the xanthine oxidase reaction. Excessive production of radicals via xanthine oxidase induces peroxidation of unsaturated fatty acids, accompanied with the formation of aldehydes. The nucleotides and aldehydes were determined by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) of red blood cell extracts. Nucleotides and their derivatives were determined by HPLC on an ODS column and elution with 10 mM phosphate buffer containing 2 mM tert.-butylammonium phosphate. The aldehyde production in glucose deprived red blood cells was stimulated by addition of xanthine oxidase and by inhibition of different haemotype enzymes with sodium azide. Aldehydes were analysed by derivatization to dinitrophenylhydrazones, followed by thin-layer chromatographic and HPLC separation with aqueous methanol on an ODS column. The HPLC methods presented are appropriate for the determination of nucleotides, nucleosides and nucleobases, in addition to alkenals and hydroxyalkenals in extracts of oxidatively stressed red blood cells.