THE PHARMACOLOGY OF SPERMINE AND SPERMIDINE. DISTRIBUTION AND EXCRETION

¹ National Institute of Arthritis and Metabolic Diseases, National Institutes of Health, U. S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, Public Health Service, Bethesda, Maryland

Methods that employ ion exchange chromatography have been developed for the estimation of spermine, spermidine and other amines in tissues.

A rapid method has been developed for the estimation of spermine, sensitive to 2 micrograms.

The various tissues of small laboratory animals contained spermine and spermidine, and in most of them spermidine was present in quantities as great as, or greater than, spermine. An endogenous origin is indicated in that the values were not significantly altered in rats reared on a purified diet, in the liver of a germ-free rat, or in newborn animals.

Small amounts of a compound appearing in the putrescine-cadaverine area of the chromatogram were present in some of the tissues and urine of normal animals.

Studies of the distribution and excretion of administered spermine revealed concentration in the kidney for 24 hours after injection.

From 4 to 21 per cent of administered spermine was recovered in the urine in 24 hours, and approximately equal amounts of spermidine, as a degradation product. No evidence of a conjugate was obtained.

Eighteen per cent of administered spermidine was recovered in the urine, but none appeared as spermine.

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