Polyamine metabolism III: urinary acetyl polyamines in human cancer.

Polyamine levels were determined by high-pressure liquid chromatography in the unhydrolyzed 24-hr urine obtained from 15 cancer patients and nine normal subjects. N1-Acetylspermine, N4-acetylspermine, N4-acetylspermidine, and N-(3-aminopropyl)acetamide were not detected in any samples. N1-Acetylspermidine, N8-acetylspermidine, acetylputrescine, and acetylcadaverine were present in all samples. Furthermore, acetylspermidine and acetylputrescine were excreted in much greater quantities than the respective amines in the urine of both cancer patients and normal subjects. The levels of N1-acetylspermidine were considerably higher than the levels of N8-acetylspermidine in the 24-hr urine of cancer patients, resulting in a ratio of N1- to N8-acetylspermidine in the urine of cancer patients significantly higher than that in normal subjects. The urinary levels of acetylputrescine were also significantly higher in cancer patients. The urinary polyamines in 13 of the 15 cancer patients were outside the 95% confidence limits of the normal mean for the ratio of N1- to N8-acetylspermidine and acetylputrescine. All cancer patients showed values outside the 95% confidence limits of the mean for either of these two parameters. Diurnal variation was observed in the urinary excretion of the acetyl polyamines but not for the free amines in two normal subjects.