Excretion of amino acids in nephrosis.

Abstract

(1) By microbiological assay, concentrations of 18 amino acids have been examined in the blood and urine of patients with nephrosis and in normal individuals under various circumstances. There were observed in an adult male patient, with nephrotic syndrome associated with glomerulonephritis, large increases over the normal rates of urinary excretion of many amino acids, both essential and nonessential, but more notably of the essential. A female adult patient, with clinical findings only of nephrosis, showed considerably less deviation from normal with a trend toward increased excretion of amino acids in the fasting state. There was a general tendency to moderately low concentrations of several amino acids in the blood of both nephrotic subjects. 2) After elevation of the blood concentrations by intravenous loading of a mixture of amino acids, the percentage of filtered amino acids (determined by simultaneous measurement of inulin clearance) which were excreted generally increased in the case of normal individuals as well as in the nephrotic subjects. No. consistent differences could beobserved between normal and nephrotic subjects as a result of “loading” of the blood with amino acids. 3) Intravenous administration of ACTH for 9 to 10 days to 2 normal subjects and 1 nephrotic subject produced no distinct changes in rates of excretion of amino acids in the normal individuals. but appeared to be associated with a moderate decrease in excretion of virtually all amino acids in the patient with nephrosis. Further study is required to confirm this observation.