ABSTRACT
The most significant recent practical advance in red cell preservation was the discovery that exogenous adenine could be utilized by red cells for maintaining ATP levels (23). The mechanism for incorporating adenine into nucleotides is depicted in FIGURE 2. Adenine phosphoribosyl transferase synthesizes adenosine monophosphate (AMP) from adenine and PRPP. Adenylate kinase converts one mole of AMP plus one mole of ATP to two moles ADP which can than be used in the Embden-Meyerhof pathway.
