Occurrence of aminopropylhomospermidine and canavalmine in the hamster epididymis.

The Syrian hamster epididymis contains rather high levels of sym-homospermidine, N1-acetylspermidine and N1-acetylspermine in addition to the common polyamines putrescine, spermidine, and spermine. In the present study two other polyamines were identified in adult hamster epididymis by gas chromatography; they are aminopropylhomospermidine [NH2(CH2)3NH(CH2)4NH(CH2)4NH2] and canavalmine [NH2(CH2)4NH(CH2)3NH(CH2)4NH2]. The molar ratio of the former to the latter was about 2:1. This is the first report to show that tetraamines other than spermine are present in mammalian tissues.