The enzymatic reduction of hydroxyurea to urea by mouse liver.

The compound hydroxyurea has been shown to have antitumor activity in animal tumors (2) and to be of value in the treatment of chronic myelogenous leukemia in man (6). The metabolism and biological activity of this compound are also of interest since it contains the hydroxamic acid group present in a variety of compounds with marked biological effects. These active substances include growth factors in bacteria and yeast, such as the ferrichromes (16) and the carcinogen A/-hydroxyurethan (14). Adamson et al. (1) studied the metabolism of hydroxyurea-14C in the mouse and found that 30 to 50%