Abstract— A total of 25 human brain tumors and 4 specimens of human brain were rapidly frozen at the time of operation and analyzed for ATP, ADP, AMP, UTP, total nucleoside triphosphates, P‐creatine, creatine, inorganic P, creatine kinase, lipid and glycogen. Analyses were made on submicrogram samples dissected from frozen dried sections in order to obtain material as free as possible from admixture with brain, necrotic tissue, blood, etc. A method was developed to estimate the original water content of the frozen dried samples. The brain specimens contained five times as much glycogen as small mammal brains, otherwise the values were similar. The tumors were in fair to excellent energy status. Within the areas chosen for assay, most of ATP and total adenylate were substantially higher than in brain in the case of 5 out of 15 gliomas, 3 of 5 meningiomas, and 1 of 4 schwannomas. UTP was almost invariably higher and other nucleotide triphosphates (besides ATP and UTP) lower than in brain. Glycogen was extremely variable, ranging among the gliomas from 0.05% to 6% of dry wt (4 times the level in the human brains). Creatine plus P‐creatine, compared to cerebral cortex levels, ranged from 15 to 85% in gliomas, was about 25% in meningiomas and the only medulloblastoma, and varied between 6 and 8% in the schwannomas. P‐Creatine varied more or less in keeping with the energy status. Creatine kinase was exceedingly variable. It was almost zero in the schwannomas, the medulloblastomas, 3 of 5 meningiomas, and 2 of 15 gliomas, whereas in some of the gliomas the activity approached that found in brain.
