Purine salvage as a metabolite and energy saving mechanism in the ocular lens

Abstract

The ocular lens is an organ which depends mainly on anaerobic processes to obtain the metabolic energy required for the maintenance of its physiological functions. In these circumstances, the purine salvage pathway enzymes, by using preformed purine rings, and allowing the utilization of the activated ribose moiety of nucleosides, might be of relevance as an energy saving device. In this paper we show that the calf lens possesses many enzymes of the purine salvage pathway, with a particularly high specific activity of purine nucleoside phosphorylase (EC 2.4.2.1), and that the isolated lens epithelium can actively convert adenine and adenosine into adenine nucleotides. In addition, as in bacteria and red blood cells, inosine and adenosine in the lens, acting as ribose donors, exert a profound effect on the process of adenine conversion into ATP.