Analysis of serum cancer procoagulant activity and its possible use as a tumor marker.

The two objectives of the study were to determine whether a procedure could be developed for measuring cancer procoagulant (CP) activity in human serum and if this procedure provided a method for distinguishing people with cancer from those without cancer. A procedure was developed for processing human serum such that the activity of other coagulation enzymes would be minimized and the activity of cancer procoagulant could be measured. In a blinded study, we collected serum from 61 individuals in serum separator tubes, removed the clot by centrifugation, extracted the serum with a simple, single step procedure and analyzed the extract for CP activity.

In vivo formation of beta-oxidized metabolites of leukotriene E4 in the rat.

Intraperitoneal administration of [3H]-leukotriene E4 in the rat resulted in the appearance of radiolabel in urine and feces. Separation of polar urinary metabolites and chromatographic comparison of synthetic metabolites indicated the in vivo formation of omega-oxidized metabolites of LTE4 with sequential beta-oxidation. Furthermore, the metabolite identified as 16-carboxy-17,18,19,20-tetranor-14,15-dihydro-N-acetyl-LTE4 substantiates the biochemical pathway of beta-oxidation in vivo involving the 2,4-dienoyl CoA reductase as an integral step.