Comparative Free and Acetylated Polyamine Profiles in the Urine of Normal Subjects and Various Cancer Patients

Urinary free and acetylated polyamine profiles have been investigated for their potential usefulness as biochemical markers of cancer in a control of group comprised of healthy volunteers (32 cases) and patients with various types of cancers(48 cases). The nine (5 free and 4 acetylated) endogeneous polyamines were simultaneously determined by a sensitive capillary gas chromatography/nitrogen-phosphorus detector (GC/NPD). The newly modified (simple and convenient) method was developed and the compounds were isolated by adsorption onto silica gel and derivatized by heptafluorobutyric anhydride to enhance their specificity on gas chromatograms. The good quality-control data were obtained through the precision and accuracy test and the recovery range of them was 48.6 ~ 101.2 %. The Korean reference values of urinary polyamines were established and significant differences were found in cancer patients compared with normal subjects. Also, to eliminate subject variations, precursors to product concentration ratios were compared between cancer patients and control group. The ratios of both putrescine to spermidine and total (free plus acetylated) putrescine to total spermidine were significantly greater in cancer patients than in normal subjects.