ADENINE IN RED CELL PRESERVATION*

Abstract

Purine nucleosides have been reported to ex- tend the preservation of red cells stored in acid citrate dextrose (ACD) (1-6). This effect was originally attributed to the production of phos- phorylated ribose as an energy substrate within the erythrocyte (7-9) through the action of nu- cleoside phosphorylase (10). This enzyme was shown to act on inosine, guanosine (11, 12), and on adenosine after its conversion to inosine by the adenosine deaminase of the erythrocyte (3, 13-19). Since inosine was the preferred substrate over guanosine ( 11 ) and was much less toxic than adenosine (2, 3, 16, 18, 20), it was selected as the most suitable of the nucleosides for red cell pres- ervation. Indeed, the initial studies indicated that inosine produced satisfactory preservation for 42 days and was even more effective than adenosine in regenerating depleted organic phosphate esters in erythrocytes stored for 25 days