How important is the oxidative degradation of spermine?: minireview article

Spermine is a constituent of most eucaryotic cells, however, it is not of vital importance for the vertebrate organism, as is demonstrated by the existence of transgenic (Gy) mice that lack spermine and spermine synthase. In contrast its degradation appears to be of vital importance, since mice die after chronic administration of N1,N4-bis(2,3-butadienyl)-1,4-butanediamine (MDL 72517). Under this condition spermine accumulates in red blood cells and blood plasma. Lethal toxicity can be avoided by intervals of MDL 72527-free periods. During these periods spermine appears to be directly degraded to spermidine without an intermediary acetylation step within the red blood cells. Since this reaction is of enormous physiological significance, it will be important to characterise the red blood cell spermine oxidase, and it will be particularly important to determine whether this oxidase is identical with the FAD-dependent polyamine oxidase that is considered to be involved in the polyamine interconversion sequence, or whether it is one of the recently characterised spermine oxidase isoenzymes.