Polyamine profiles in the urine of patients with leukemia.

Eleven urinary polyamine levels were determined in controls (32 cases) and 43 patients with varying stages of leukemia including initial, relapse and complete remission, using gas chromatography nitrogen-phosphorus detection. Also, to indirectly evaluate the possible involvement of enzymes, precursor to product concentration ratios were compared between controls and patients with each stage of leukemia. As a result, it is confirmed that the ratio of N1-acSpd/N8-acSpd could be used as a diagnostic marker and the level of N1,N12-diacetylspermine could be used for determining disease stage and as a malignancy marker for leukemia. An altered metabolic pathway related to leukemia is also proposed in which N1,N12-diacetylspermine can be produced directly from spermine and N1,N12-diacetylspermine is a major source of N1-acetylspermidine.