7-methylguanine and other minor urinary purines: values for normal subjects from Israel, Gaza, and Kenya, and for patients with cancer of various organs or cirrhosis of the liver.

Abstract

Single urine specimens from 72 normal adult males, including Jews from Israel, Arabs from Gaza, and Africans from Kenya, were analyzed for purines (excluding uric acid). These groups showed similar results for adenine, 7-methylguanine, hypoxanthine, and xanthine, and differences observed for the minor methylated purines were probably artefactual. The results were similar to those found in the United States and Britain, and do not suggest that such analyses may be useful for detecting exposure to carcinogenic alkylating agents, except at large doses. Urine from 30 subjects with cirrhosis of the liver or cancer of various organs (excluding leukemia) were also examined. These showed significant changes in various ratios indicating a depressed excretion of hypoxanthine and xanthine (and also creatinine), relative to that of adenine and 7-methylguanine. Some of these subjects also showed an increased excretion of 8-hydroxy-7-methylguanine and (less frequently) 1-methylhypoxanthine and 1-methyladenine. Similar effects have previously been observed in gout and in leukemia.