Effect of acetoacetate on urinary excretion of xanthurenic acid and other tryptophan metabolites in rats.

Abstract

1. An experiment was performed to study the effect of sodium acetoacetate on urinary excretion of santhurenic acid and other tryptophan metabolites in male albino rats.2. Animals were fed on a nicotinic acid-deficient diet for a period of 3 weeks. The animals were then divided into two groups and, after the basal urinary excretion of the tryptophan metabolites had been estimated, the rats of both the groups were force-fed with L-tryptophan (100 mg per rat), the rats of the second group being simultaneously injected intraperitoncally with acetoacetate (200 mg/kg body-weight), and the urine samples during the following 24 h were collected and analysed.3. Acetoacetate-treated rats given tryptophan were found to excrete significantly greater amounts of kynurenine, hydroxykynurenine and xanthurenic acid than the corresponding control rats. There was no ditference between the amounts of kynurenic acid excreted by the animals in the two groups.