Biosynthesis and selective export of 1,5-diaminopentane (cadaverine) in mycoplasma-free cultured mammalian cells.

Macrophage-like RAW 264 and H35 hepatoma cells grown under serum-free conditions exported putrescine and an unidentified diamine into the culture medium. Unlike putrescine, the unknown compound could be detected only extracellularly. Analyses of dansylated polyamine standards and mass spectroscopy confirmed that the unknown compound was cadaverine (1,5-diaminopentane). The cells were free of mycoplasma as evidenced by a negative result using a probe specific for prokaryotic rRNA. After prophylactic treatments with two different mycoplasmacidal agents, the cells continued to export cadaverine. Attempts to "infect" a noncadaverine-exporting cell line with culture medium and cell-free lysates proved unsuccessful, establishing that cadaverine was in fact a bona fide product of these mammalian cells. Cadaverine export by RAW 264 and H35 cells was stimulated by lipopolysaccharide and insulin, respectively. However, administration of exogenous ornithine caused cadaverine export to decrease significantly with concomitant increases in putrescine export. alpha-Difluoromethylornithine, a selective inhibitor of ornithine decarboxylase, inhibited both cadaverine and putrescine export. When cells were labeled with [3H]lysine, the great majority of the radioactivity recovered in exported polyamines was found in cadaverine. The cumulative data suggested that cadaverine formation may be caused by the action of intracellular ornithine decarboxylase upon lysine to produce cadaverine, which is then effluxed from the cell with a high degree of efficiency.