Nucleoside and oxypurine homeostasis in adult rabbit cerebrospinal fluid and plasma.

In adult New Zealand white rabbits, the effects of food deprivation and of massive elevations of plasma uridine or thymidine concentrations on CSF and plasma nucleoside and oxypurine concentrations were studied. Nucleoside and oxypurine levels were determined by high performance liquid chromatography using unequivocal methods of compound identification. After 48 and 96 h of food deprivation, the concentrations of uridine, cytidine, inosine, thymidine, deoxycytidine, deoxyuridine, hypoxanthine, xanthine, and uric acid in CSF and plasma were not different than in controls, except at 96 h, when the plasma uridine concentration was 35% lower (p less than 0.05). After elevation of the plasma and CSF thymidine concentrations to approximately 200 and 100 microM, respectively, with intravenous thymidine for 5 h, there was a large increase in CSF and plasma thymidine to approximately 100 microM and a smaller increase in plasma and CSF deoxyuridine concentrations. After elevation of the plasma and CSF uridine concentrations to 0.6 and 0.2 mM, respectively, there was a large increase in CSF and plasma uracil and a smaller increase in plasma and CSF deoxyuridine concentrations. Elevated plasma concentration of thymidine and uridine significantly decreased the CSF to plasma ratios of deoxyuridine and thymidine; however, only elevated plasma uridine concentrations decreased the CSF to plasma ratio of uridine. These results document the powerful homeostatic mechanisms that regulate the concentrations of the principal nucleosides and oxypurine bases in CSF.