The Maintenance of ATP in Stored Blood by Adenosine and Inosine

In order to resolve a controversy concerning the relative effectiveness of adenosine and inosine for maintaining the high energy phosphates of incubating red blood cells, experiments were performed in which either of the nucleosides was added, sometimes at the beginning of incubation and sometimes later. The results indicated that the relative effectiveness varied according to the concentration and time of addition of the nucleoside. The variability of the results with time is attributed to the fact that adenosine and inosine affect different ATP synthetic reactions whose rates change during incubation. Experiments with adenine indicated that adenine moiety is important for ATP maintenance.