Changes in polyamine metabolism during glucocorticoid-induced programmed cell death in mouse thymus.

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Hegardt C, Andersson G, Oredsson SM

Changes in polyamine metabolism during glucocorticoid-induced programmed cell death in mouse thymus.

Cell Biol Int. 2000;24(12):871-80.

PubMed ID

11114236 [ View in PubMed

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Abstract

When mice are injected with dexamethasone, cortical thymocytes are deleted through programmed cell death (PCD). We have used this in vivo model system to investigate the kinetics of PCD and cell proliferation in relation to polyamine metabolism for 16 h after injection of dexamethasone. As a marker for PCD, we used the appearance of a sub-G(1)peak in the DNA histogram. When a sub-G(1)peak appeared at 4 h after dexamethasone treatment, the activity of the polyamine catabolic enzyme spermidine/spermine N(1)-acetyltransferase (SSAT) was significantly increased and the activity of the polyamine biosynthetic enzyme S-adenosylmethionine decarboxylase (AdoMetDC) was significantly decreased compared to the activities found in the thymi of control mice. Despite the significant changes in the activities of SSAT and AdoMetDC, the only change in the polyamine pool during the experimental period was that of putrescine. Presumably the complexity of this in vivo system masks changes in the spermidine and spermine pools that were expected in relation to the increased SSAT activity and decreased AdoMetDC activity.

DrugBank Data that Cites this Article

Drug Enzymes

Drug	Enzyme	Kind	Organism	Pharmacological Action	Actions
Spermine	Diamine acetyltransferase 1	Protein	Humans	Unknown	Substrate	Details