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Depending on metabolic conditions, xanthine oxidoreductase acts as either a dehydrogenase (XDH) or an oxidase (XOD). The metabolism of hypoxanthine and xanthine by the oxidase is associated with the production of reactive oxygen radicals. Reaction of reactive oxygen radicals with polyunsaturated fatty acids (lipid peroxidation) leads to the formation of malondialdehyde (MDA) and 4-hydroxynonenal (HNE), known to modify proteins by reaction with NH2- and SH-groups. Therefore, these aldehydes could influence both the activity of xanthine oxidoreductase and the XOD/XDH ratio. We found that incubation of xanthine oxidoreductase with MDA leads to an initial increase in XDH activity and to a continuous decrease in XOD activity, whereby the total activity decreases. This was in contrast to the effects of HNE which did not alter the XDH activity; XOD was however activated. This demonstrates that the lipid peroxidation products MDA and HNE are able to modify xanthine oxidoreductase similarly to a feed-back mechanism.

Isolated working rat hearts were subjected to aerobic perfusion (25 min), cardioplegic infusion (3 min), global ischemia (30 min at 37 degrees C) and reperfusion (35 min). Measurements of myocardial xanthine oxidase and dehydrogenase activity, together with various adenine nucleotides and metabolites, were made at defined stages of the protocol (n = 6/group). Allopurinol pretreatment (20 mg/kg body wt/day for 3 days) improved the postischemic recovery of cardiac function; thus, aortic flow (a representative index) recovered to 68.8 +/- 4.2% compared with 53.2 +/- 2.3% in untreated controls (p less than 0.05). In fresh tissue, allopurinol pretreatment inhibited xanthine dehydrogenase activity by 73.1% (from 11.9 +/- 0.5 to 3.2 +/- 0.8 mIU/g wet wt: p less than 0.05) and xanthine oxidase activity by 95.2% (from 8.3 +/- 1.2 to 0.4 +/- 0.2 mIU/g wet wt: p less than 0.05); however, this inhibition was not maintained during perfusion. During reperfusion, myocardial xanthine dehydrogenase and oxidase activity was reduced by 40-60% (p less than 0.05) in both allopurinol pretreated and control hearts. Tissue content of creatine phosphate, adenosine triphosphate and catabolites, NAD and inorganic phosphate were not different in allopurinol pretreated or control hearts during either ischemia or reperfusion. This study does not support the concept that allopurinol protects the rat heart during ischemia and reperfusion by inhibition of xanthine oxidase activity or by conservation of purines. It appears that allopurinol achieves its protective effects by some, as yet undefined, mechanism.

1. Xanthine:NAD+ oxidoreductase from chick embryo liver is unconvertible to the O2-dependent form, as is the enzyme from the adult hen. The Km for NAD+ (approximately 3 microM) of the embryonic enzyme is equal to, and the Km for xanthine (approximately 5 microM) is 2.5-fold lower, when compared with respective Km values of the "adult" hen enzyme. The inhibition of embryonic enzyme by NADH begins at 10 microM NADH and attains 13% at 35 microM NADH (respective data for the "adult" enzyme: 50 microM and 20% at 80 microM NADH). 2. The course of hypoxanthine----xanthine----uric acid hydroxylation catalyzed by the embryonic and "adult" enzymes is similar, however the rate of the first reaction is 2-fold lower for the embryonic enzyme. Under conditions of the limited nutritional system in the developing chick embryo, the low rate of hypoxanthine hydroxylation may promote reutilization of hypoxanthine for nucleotide synthesis.

N-substituted cyclic imides of phthalimide, 2,3-dihydrohalazine-1,4-dione, and diphenimide were shown to reduce the serum uric acid levels in normal and hyperuric mice at 20 mg/kg/day I.P. for 14 days. The agents were potent inhibitors of commercial xanthine dehydrogenase and xanthine oxidase enzyme activities with IC50 values from 10(-7) to 10(-8) M concentrations of drug.

The reduced forms of xanthine oxidase, xanthine dehydrogenase, aldehyde oxidase, and sulfite oxidase are inactivated by cyanide. Following gel filtration to remove excess of reductant and cyanide, the isolated enzymes remain inactive. Thiocyanate, a product of inactivation of the oxidized forms of the xanthine- and aldehyde-oxidizing enzymes by cyanide, is not released during inactivation of the reduced enzymes. Studies with [14C]cyanide show that, while stoichiometric binding is required for the onset of inactivation, its continued binding is not essential to maintenance of the inactivated state. Electron paramagnetic resonance and absorption spectroscopic studies on the isolated inactivated enzymes show that prosthetic groups other than molybdenum are fully oxidized but that the molybdenum centers are modified. Reactivation is accomplished by incubation with suitable oxidants. Aerobic reactivation of inactive sulfite oxidase required only 1 eq of ferricyanide/active site. However, under rigorously anaerobic conditions, 3 to 4 mol of ferricyanide/active site were reduced, indicating that the molybdenum centers in the inactive enzyme had been reduced below the levels attained by the native enzyme during catalysis.

The kinetic behaviour of chicken-liver xanthine dehydrogenase (xanthine/NAD+ oxidoreductase; EC 1.2.1.37) has been studied. Steady-state results, obtained from a wide range of concentrations of substrates and products, were fitted by rational functions of degree 1:1, 1:2, 2:2 and 3:3 with respect to substrates, and 0:1, 1:1, 0:2 and 1:2 with regard to products, using a non-linear regression program which guarantees the fit. The goodness of fit was improved using a computer program that combines model discrimination, parameter refinement and sequential experimental design. The AIC and F tests were also used for model discrimination. For comparative purposes, the xanthine/oxygen oxidoreductase reaction was also studied. From the functions which give the maximum improvement, the complete rate equation was deduced. The significance of the terms was stated by the above methods. It was concluded that xanthine dehydrogenase requires a minimum mechanism of degree 1:1 for xanthine, 2:2 for NAD+, 1:1 for uric acid and 1:2 for NADH in the xanthine/NAD+ oxidoreductase reaction. These are the minimum degrees required but a rate equation of higher degree is not excluded.

Turkey liver xanthine dehydrogenase containing the full complement of molybdenum, flavin and iron-sulphur prosthetic groups is, as normally isolated, a mixture of functional and non-functional enzyme. The latter apparently lacks the cyanolysable persulphide groups essential to the oxidation of xanthine and to interaction with arsenite. These groups are not required for the oxidation of NADH by Methylene Blue. That KI treatment effects a differential release of flavin from xanthine-prereduced and NADH-prereduced enzyme merely reflects the degree of functionality of the preparations used and may not be taken as evidence for non-equivalence of the flavin chromophores.

The release and metabolism of adenosine was examined using rat fat cells in which the nucleotide pool has been labeled by incubation with radioactive adenine. The accumulation of adenosine in the medium was near maximal at the start of the incubation and increased only slightly thereafter. Adenosine was rapidly deaminated to inosine and subsequently oxidized to uric acid. In the presence of allopurinol, and inhibitor of xanthine dehydrogenase, hypoxanthine accumulated in the medium as the end-product of adenosine catabolism. Adenosine accumulated in the medium only if fat cells were incubated in the presence of erythro-9-(2-hydroxy-3-nonyl)adenine, an inhibitor of adenosine deaminase. Even in the presence of this inhibitor there was no acceleration of adenosine release by norepinephrine in the presence of theophylline. However, there was an increase in labeled intracellular AMP accumulation by norepinephrine plus theophylline. The increase in labeled AMP correlated with the final free fatty acid to albumin ratio suggesting that the rise in AMP was related to an accumulation of intracellular free fatty acids. The addition of sodium oleate to the medium mimicked the effect of norepinephrine plus theophylline on the accumulation of labeled AMP. These results indicate that AMP rather than adenosine accumulates in isolated fat cells during incubation with lipolytic agents.

Xanthine dehydrogenase (EC 1.2.1.37) activity was determined in the fat body of the Chagas' disease vector Triatoma infestans using a system in which phenazine methosulphate was associated with p-iodonitrotetrazolium violet as electron acceptors for the oxidation of the substrate xanthine. Under the standard conditions used, xanthine was the substrate of choice. The apparent Michaelis-Menten constant (Km) for xanthine was found to be 0.217 +/- 0.020 mM (mean +/- standard deviation of four independent determinations) in the absence of the inhibitors. In the presence of the purine derivatives used the average apparent Km varied from 0.216 mM to 0.219 mM, using the same enzyme preparation. In the presence of the inhibitors tested, competitive inhibition was observed with 8-azaxanthine (Ki = 0.160 mM), adenine hemisulphate (Ki = 0.184 mM) and 6-mercaptopurine (Ki = 0.008 mM). Noncompetitive inhibition was obtained with 8-azaguanine (Ki = 0.077 mM) most probably due to the formation of a dead-end complex between the enzyme, the substrate and the inhibitor.

The course of the reaction sequence hypoxanthine leads to xanthine leads to uric acid, catalysed by the NAD+-dependent activity of xanthine oxidoreductase, was investigated under conditions either of immediate oxidation of the NADH formed or of NADH accumulation. The enzymic preparation was obtained from rat liver, and purified 75-fold (as compared with the 25000 g supernatant) on a 5'-AMP-Sepharose 4B column; in this preparation the NAD+-dependent activity accounted for 100% of total xanthine oxidoreductase activity. A spectrophotometric method was developed for continuous measurements of changes in the concentrations of the three purines involved. The time course as well as the effects of the concentrations of enzyme and of hypoxanthine were examined. NADH produced by the enzyme lowered its activity by 50%, resulting in xanthine accumulation and in decreases of uric acid formation and of hypoxanthine utilization. The inhibition of the Xanthine oxidoreductase NAD+-dependent activity by NADH is discussed as a possible factor in the regulation of IMP biosynthesis by the 'de novo' pathway or (from unchanged hypoxanthine) by ther salvage pathway.

1. Turkey liver xanthine dehydrogenase engaged in catalysing the oxidation of xanthine by dichlorophenol-indophenol was progressively inactivated by methanol. This inactivation was reversible by NAD(+). 2. Reaction with arsenite and with cyanide, in each case first-order with respect to enzyme, resulted in characteristic alterations in the visible absorption spectrum of the enzyme. The rate of spectral change on reaction with either agent paralleled the rate of loss of enzyme activity. 3. Cyanide inactivation was accompanied by elimination from the enzyme of sulphur as thiocyanate. Partial restoration of activity was effected by incubation with sulphide or with selenide. The results suggest that turkey liver xanthine dehydrogenase, like milk xanthine oxidase (Massey & Edmonson, 1970), contains at the active centre a cyanolysable persulphide group essential to catalytic activity and that selenium may replace sulphur in this group to give an active enzyme. 4. Incubation of the native enzyme with sulphide or with selenide resulted in the rapid loss of half of the xanthine-oxidizing activity, apparently by disrupting the molybdenum and (Fe/S)II loci. This may indicate non-equivalence of the intramolecular electron-transfer systems.

Crude and purified xanthine dehydrogenase preparations from rat liver were examined for the existence of a naturally occurring inactive form. Reduction of the purified enzyme by xanthine under anaerobic conditions proceeded in two phases. The enzyme was inactivated by cyanide, which caused the release of a sulfur atom from the molybdenum center as thiocyanate. The amount of thiocyanate released was almost in parallel with the initial specific activity. The active and inactive enzymes could be resolved by affinity chromatography on Sepharose 4B/folate gel. These results provided evidence that the purified enzyme preparation from rat liver contained an inactive form. A method for the determination of the active and inactive enzymes in crude enzyme preparations from rat liver was devised based on the fact that only active enzyme could react with [14C]allopurinol and both active and inactive enzymes could be immunoprecipitated quantitatively by excess specific antibody to xanthine dehydrogenase. The amount of [14C]alloxanthine (derived from [14C]allopurinol) bound to the active sulfo enzyme in crude rat liver extracts was about 0.5 mol/mol of FAD. As this content is closely similar to that in the purified enzyme, these results suggest the existence of an inactive desulfo form in vivo.

A spectrophotometric method for the determination of three forms of xanthine oxidoreductase, namely dehydrogenase (D), dehydrogenase-oxidase (D/O) and oxidase (O), is described. Enzymic fractions obtained from rat liver were found to contain either all three forms, or (under special conditions of preparation) only two forms, D and D/O. The conversion of form D leads to form D/O leads to form O in the presence of Cu2+ ions was shown. Form D/O acted with NAD+ as well as with O2 as electron acceptors, it exhibited greater affinity to NAD+ than to O2, and NAD+ abolished the oxidase activity of this form. Moreover, oxidase activity of form D/O was inhibited by NADH. These facts indicate that NAD+ and O2 compete for the same active site on the enzyme molecule.

Since only little xanthine oxidase (XO) activity in mammalian brain was detected in earlier reports, the major end product of AMP degradation in the brain has been believed to be hypoxanthine. Our recent experimental study however, has indicated the presence of uric acid in the rat brain subjected to focal ischemia or cold injury. Allopurinol, a xanthine oxidoreductase inhibitor, has been found to markedly suppress the uric acid production in the same experimental settings. These results suggested that uric acid is generated from hypoxanthine by enzymatic reaction in injured brain tissue. The aim of this experiment is to prove the existence of xanthine oxidoreductase activity in brain tissue. Xanthine oxidoreductase activity in rat cerebral tissue was measured immediately or at 24-hour after decapitation. Under pentobarbital anesthesia, twenty Sprague-Dawley rats were killed by decapitation following washout of the blood by trans-cardiac perfusion with cold physiological saline. Immediately or after 24 hours of decapitation ischemia, the forebrain was removed and homogenized in 6 ml ice cold 0.05 M potassium phosphate buffer (pH 7.8) containing 1 mM phenylmethylsulfonyl fluoride, 0.3 mM EGTA, and 10 mM dithiothreitol. The homogenate was centrifuged at 100,000 g for 60 min and then the supernatant was dialyzed overnight against 0.05 M potassium phosphate buffer (pH 7.8). Aliquot of each dialyzed supernatant (sample) and standard xanthine solution with NAD was reacted at 37 degrees C for 15 min to measure the combined activity of xanthine dehydrogenase (XDH) and XO. For the measurement of XO, standard xanthine solution without NAD was used.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Xanthine dehydrogenase was purified from soybean nodules and the kinetic properties were studied at pH 7.5. Km values of 5.0 +/- 0.6 and 12.5 +/- 2.5 microM were obtained for xanthine and NAD+, respectively. The pattern of substrate dependence suggested a Ping-Pong mechanism. Reaction with hypoxanthine gave Km's of 52 +/- 3 and 20 +/- 2.5 microM for hypoxanthine and NAD+, respectively. The Vmax for this reaction was twice that for the xanthine-dependent reaction. The pH dependence of Vmax gave a pKa of 7.6 +/- 0.1 for either xanthine or hypoxanthine oxidation. In addition the Km for xanthine had a pKa of 7.5 consistent with the protonated form of xanthine being the true substrate. Km for hypoxanthine varied only 2.5-fold between pH 6 and 10.7. Product inhibition studies were carried out with urate and NADH. Both products gave mixed inhibition with respect to both substrates. Xanthine dehydrogenase was able to use APAD+ as an electron acceptor for xanthine oxidation, with a Km at pH 7.5 of 21.2 +/- 2.5 microM and Vmax the same as that obtained with NAD+. Reduction of APAD+ by NADH was also catalyzed by xanthine dehydrogenase with a Km of 102 +/- 15 microM; Vmax was approximately 2.5 times that for the xanthine-dependent reaction, and was independent of pH between 6 and 9. Reaction with group-specific reagents indicated the possibility of an essential histidyl group. A thiol-modifying reagent did not cause inactivation of the enzyme. A role for the histidyl side chain in catalysis is proposed.

Inactivation of chicken liver xanthine dehydrogenase by arsenite is reflected in the molybdenum electron paramagnetic resonance signal at g = 1.97. The arsenite spectrum shows additional splittings and considerable broadening yet remains comparable to the native in total intensity. Further subtle alterations of the molybdenum signal of arsenite-treated enzyme are seen in the presence of purine-type substrates or inhibitors.

Hepatic lesions by D-L-ethionine in rats produce a significant increase in the blood serum xanthine dehydrogenase activity. Cupric acetate is a potent inhibitor (Ki = 3.42 X 10(-6) M) of the xanthine dehydrogenase activity. Ethionine protects against the inhibitory effect of cupric acetate by formation of a copper complex with behaviour different from that of free ethionine.

Xanthine:acceptor oxidoreductase activities were assayed in free skin flaps following prolonged preservation. In normal rat skin, xanthine dehydrogenase transfers electrons to NAD+ and accounts for 73% of total oxidoreductase activity, and xanthine oxidase transfers electrons to molecular oxygen and accounts for the remaining 27%. Xanthine oxidase activity increased significantly in skin flaps during ischemia: approximately 30 and 100% increases after 6 and 24 hr of ischemia, respectively. Allopurinol inhibited xanthine oxidoreductase activity: free skin flaps obtained from allopurinol-treated animals exhibited a low level of xanthine oxidoreductase activity throughout the period of preservation. Systemic allopurinol significantly improved the survival rate from 32 to 75% of free flaps transferred after 24 hr of preservation at room temperature. These observations suggest that the xanthine oxidase system is a major source of oxygen free radicals following ischemia/reperfusion in skin. The increase in xanthine oxidase is attributable to the conversion of xanthine dehydrogenase to oxidase, a conversion which involves sulfhydryl oxidation in skin flaps.

Quercetin is an equally good inhibitor of xanthine oxidase (type O, oxygen-reducing enzyme) and xanthine dehydrogenase (type D, NAD+-reducing enzyme) activity of a preparation of the xanthine-oxidizing enzyme partially purified from rat liver. The inhibition seems competitive with the oxidase form and non-competitive (mixed-type) with the dehydrogenase form of the enzyme. These inhibitory properties should be referred to the flavonoid structure of quercetin rather than to its antioxidant power. The antioxidant properties of quercetin and its inhibitory effect on the xanthine-oxidizing enzyme are discussed with reference to hyperuricemic and ischemic states.

A method to purify bovine liver xanthine oxidase in described, with which samples of 256-fold specific activity with respect to the initial homogenate are obtained. Bovine liver xanthine oxidase and chicken liver xanthine dehydrogenase with oxygen as electron acceptor exhibit similar profile in pKM and log V versus pH plots. With NAD+ as electron acceptor a different profile in the pKM xanthine plot is obtained for chicken liver xanthine dehydrogenase. However three inflection points at the same pH values appear in all plots. Both enzymes are irreversibly inhibited by pCMB and reversibly by N-ethylmaleimide and by iodoacetamide, with competitive and uncompetitive type inhibitions respectively. These results suggest that NAD+ alters the enzymatic action since its binding to the enzyme antecedes the binding of xanthine to the xanthine oxidase molecule, without undergoing itself any modification. 0.15 M DDT of DTE treatment of bovine liver xanthine oxidase gives to the enzyme a permanent activity with NAD+ without modifying its activity with oxygen. The enzyme thus treated produces parallel straight lines in Lineweaver-Burk plots.

Xanthine dehydrogenase and related enzymes contain multicomponent internal electron transfer chains. The topographical arrangement of this chain in such that the oxidation of substrate and the reduction of the electron acceptor occur at separate non-overlapping sites that communicate by intramolecular electron transfer. The steady-state kinetic behaviour of these enzymes is thus ideally suited to a two-site ping-pong mechanism, with random addition of substrates and products at the two sites. The formal mechanism of these enzymes is presented here as a mixture of rapid equilibrium random segments connected by a steady-state segment, i.e. a rapid-equilibrium random (two-site) hybrid ping-pong mechanism. Such a mechanism is likely to be operative in a variety of oxidative enzymes containing multiple redox-active prosthetic groups.

Alloxan is an inhibitor of the enzyme xanthine: NAD+ oxido reductase (E.C.1.2.1.37). Alloxan acts as an electron acceptor and competes "in vitro" with the tetrazolium salt used as electron acceptor in the assay system used for the determination of the dehydrogenase activity of the enzyme. The alloxan inhibition was reverted when phenazine methosulfate (PMS) was added to the system.