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Nicotinamide Content of Some Normal and Malignant Tissues; The Apparent Absence of Niacin in Epidermis^*

( Wernse Laboratory of Cancer Research, Washington University, School of Medicine, St. Louis 10, Mo.)

1. Evidence is presented which shows that a polarographically reducible substance characteristic of epidermis is structurally altered or lost in the malignant transformation of this tissue by methylcholanthrene. Nicotinamide and at least three other UV absorbing materials are present in alcohol-ether extracts of squamous-cell carcinomas derived from this tissue. Epidermis shows only one UV absorbing substance which is also reducible, but nicotinamide has not been found in this tissue.

2. Nicotinamide and creatinine were extracted from mouse and horse muscle with an alcoholether mixture. In a transplantable rhabdomyosarcoma the latter compound was absent, and in about half of these samples the reducible compound absorbed at 260 and 350 mµ. Whether this yellow material is one or more compounds requires further study. This tumor also had at least three other UV absorbing materials very similar to those of the squamous-cell carcinomas.

3. Mouse liver and a transplantable hepatoma contained nicotinamide and at least three other UV absorbing materials of similar characteristics.

4. A polarographic method for the determination of nicotinamide and possibly other pyridine compounds was briefly discussed.

^* This investigation was aided by grants from the Charles F. Kettering Foundation and the Damon Runyon Memorial Fund.

Received 7/15/52.