Deficiency Of Tyrosine Aminotransferase Research Articles

Effects of omega-3 fatty acids supplementation on inflammatory parameters after chronic administration of L-tyrosine.

Tyrosinemia type II is an autosomal recessive inborn error of metabolism caused by hepatic cytosolic tyrosine aminotransferase deficiency. Importantly, this disease is associated with neurological and developmental abnormalities in many patients. Considering that the mechanisms underlying neurological dysfunction in hypertyrosinemic patients are poorly understood, in the present work we investigated the levels of cytokines - tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), interleukin-1β (IL-1β), IL-6 and IL-10 - in cerebellum, hippocampus, striatum of young rats exposed to chronic administration of L-tyrosine. In addition, we also investigated the impact of the supplementation with Omega-3 fatty acids (n-3 PUFA) on the rodent model of Tyrosinemia. Notably, previous study demonstrated an association between L-tyrosine toxicity and n-3 PUFA deficiency. Our results showed a significant increase in the levels of pro- and anti-inflammatory cytokines in brain structures when animals were administered with L-tyrosine. Cerebral cortex and striatum seem to be more susceptible to the inflammation induced by tyrosine toxicity. Importantly, n-3 PUFA supplementation attenuated the alterations on cytokines levels induced by tyrosine exposure in brain regions of infant rats. In conclusion, the brain inflammation is also an important process related to tyrosine neurotoxicity observed in the experimental model of Tyrosinemia. Finally, n-3 PUFA supplementation could be considered as a potential neuroprotective adjunctive therapy for Tyrosinemias, especially type II.

Role of antioxidant treatment on DNA and lipid damage in the brain of rats subjected to a chemically induced chronic model of tyrosinemia type II.

Tyrosine levels are abnormally elevated in tissues and body fluids of patients with inborn errors of tyrosine metabolism. Tyrosinemia type II, which is caused by tyrosine aminotransferase deficiency, provokes eyes, skin, and central nervous system disturbances in affected patients. However, the mechanisms of brain damage are still poorly known. Considering that studies have demonstrated that oxidative stress may contribute, along with other mechanisms, to the neurological dysfunction characteristic of hypertyrosinemia, in the present study we investigated the effects of antioxidant treatment (NAC and DFX) on DNA damage and oxidative stress markers induced by chronic administration of L-tyrosine in cerebral cortex, hippocampus, and striatum of rats. The results showed elevated levels of DNA migration, and thus DNA damage, after chronic administration of L-tyrosine in all the analyzed brain areas, and that the antioxidant treatment was able to prevent DNA damage in cerebral cortex and hippocampus. However, the co-administration of NAC plus DFX did not prevent the DNA damage in the striatum. Moreover, we found a significant increase in thiobarbituric acid-reactive substances (TBA-RS) and DCFH oxidation in cerebral cortex, as well as an increase in nitrate/nitrite levels in the hippocampus and striatum. Additionally, the antioxidant treatment was able to prevent the increase in TBA-RS levels and in nitrate/nitrite levels, but not the DCFH oxidation. In conclusion, our findings suggest that reactive oxygen and nitrogen species and oxidative stress can play a role in DNA damage in this disorder. Moreover, NAC/DFX supplementation to tyrosinemia type II patients may represent a new therapeutic approach and a possible adjuvant to the current treatment of this disease.

Creatine and pyruvate prevent the alterations caused by tyrosine on parameters of oxidative stress and enzyme activities of phosphoryltransfer network in cerebral cortex of Wistar rats.

Tyrosine accumulates in inborn errors of tyrosine catabolism, especially in tyrosinemia type II. In this disease caused by tyrosine aminotransferase deficiency, eyes, skin, and central nervous system disturbances are found. In the present study, we investigated the chronic effect of tyrosine methyl ester (TME) and/or creatine plus pyruvate on some parameters of oxidative stress and enzyme activities of phosphoryltransfer network in cerebral cortex homogenates of 21-day-old Wistar. Chronic administration of TME induced oxidative stress and altered the activities of adenylate kinase and mitochondrial and cytosolic creatine kinase. Total sulfhydryls content, GSH content, and GPx activity were significantly diminished, while DCFH oxidation, TBARS content, and SOD activity were significantly enhanced by TME. On the other hand, TME administration decreased the activity of CK from cytosolic and mitochondrial fractions but enhanced AK activity. In contrast, TME did not affect the carbonyl content and PK activity in cerebral cortex of rats. Co-administration of creatine plus pyruvate was effective in the prevention of alterations provoked by TME administration on the oxidative stress and the enzymes of phosphoryltransfer network, except in mitochondrial CK, AK, and SOD activities. These results indicate that chronic administration of TME may stimulate oxidative stress and alter the enzymes of phosphoryltransfer network in cerebral cortex of rats. In case this also occurs in the patients affected by these disorders, it may contribute, along with other mechanisms, to the neurological dysfunction of hypertyrosinemias, and creatine and pyruvate supplementation could be beneficial to the patients.

Tyrosine impairs enzymes of energy metabolism in cerebral cortex of rats

Tyrosine levels are abnormally elevated in tissues and physiological fluids of patients with inborn errors of tyrosine catabolism, especially in tyrosinemia type II, which is caused by deficiency of tyrosine aminotransferase and provokes eyes, skin, and central nervous system disturbances. Considering that the mechanisms of brain damage in these disorders are poorly known, in this study, we investigated the in vivo and in vitro effects of tyrosine on some parameters of energy metabolism in cerebral cortex of 14-day-old Wistar rats. We observed that 2 mM tyrosine inhibited in vitro the pyruvate kinase (PK) activity and that this inhibition was prevented by 1 mM reduced glutathione with 30, 60, and 90 min of preincubation. Moreover, administration of tyrosine methyl ester (TME) (0.5 mg/g of body weight) decreased the activity of PK and this reduction was prevented by pre-treatment with creatine (Cr). On the other hand, tyrosine did not alter adenylate kinase (AK) activity in vitro, but administration of TME enhanced AK activity not prevented by Cr pre-treatment. Finally, TME administration decreased the activity of CK from cytosolic and mitochondrial fractions and this diminution was prevented by Cr pre-treatment. The results suggest that tyrosine alters essential sulfhydryl groups necessary for CK and PK functions, possibly through oxidative stress. In case this also occurs in the patients, it is possible that energy metabolism alterations may contribute, along with other mechanisms, to the neurological dysfunction of hypertyrosinemias.

Tyrosine administration decreases glutathione and stimulates lipid and protein oxidation in rat cerebral cortex

Tyrosine levels are abnormally elevated in tissues and physiological fluids of patients with inborn errors of tyrosine catabolism especially in tyrosinemia type II which is caused by deficiency of tyrosine aminotransferase (TAT) and provokes eyes, skin and central nervous system disturbances. We have recently reported that tyrosine promoted oxidative stress in vitro but the exact mechanisms of brain damage in these disorder are poorly known. In the present study, we investigated the in vivo effect of L-tyrosine (500 mg/Kg) on oxidative stress indices in cerebral cortex homogenates of 14-day-old Wistar rats. A single injection of L-tyrosine decreased glutathione (GSH) and thiol-disulfide redox state (SH/SS ratio) while thiobarbituric acid-reactive substances, protein carbonyl content and glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase activity were enhanced. In contrast, the treatment did not affect ascorbic acid content, and the activities of superoxide dismutase, catalase and glutathione peroxidase. These results indicate that acute administration of L-tyrosine may impair antioxidant defenses and stimulate oxidative damage to lipids and proteins in cerebral cortex of young rats in vivo. This suggests that oxidative stress may represent a pathophysiological mechanism in hypetyrosinemic patients.

Corneal Lesion as the Initial Manifestation of Tyrosinemia Type II

Tyrosinemia type II (Richner-Hanhart syndrome) is a rare autosomal recessive disease with deficiency of tyrosine aminotransferase and subsequently increasing level of serum tyrosine. We report the case of a 2-year-old girl who was referred due to bilateral corneal lesions. Slit-lamp examination showed small granular white deposits arranged in a dendritic pattern in the superficial central cornea of both eyes. Physical examination revealed painful, non-pruritic, hyperkeratotic plaques on the soles, palms and fingertips. Mental evaluation demonstrated developmental delay for her age. Blood examination revealed serum tyrosine level to be 1868 microM (normal range, 30-110 microM), which decreased to 838 microM with 2-month diet on tyrosine and phenylalanine restriction. The corneal and skin lesions resolved completely. However, the corneal deposits recurred a month later as her mother failed to strictly control the diet because the little girl was losing weight and activity. With specific formula and adjusted diet regimen, the corneal lesions decreased again. Corneal pseudodendritic deposits may be the initial manifestation in patients with tyrosinemia type II. Early diagnosis and intervention with diet control are crucial for preventing permanent visual and developmental deficits. Corneal deposits can be one of the parameters in monitoring the efficacy of diet control.

The genetic tyrosinemias

The genetic tyrosinemias are characterized by the accumulation of tyrosine in body fluids and tissues. The most severe form of tyrosinemia, Type I, is a devastating disorder of childhood that causes liver failure, painful neurologic crises, rickets, and hepatocarcinoma. This disorder is caused by a deficiency of fumarylacetoacetate hydrolase (FAH). If untreated, death typically occurs at less than 2 years of age, with some chronic forms allowing longer survival. It has a prevalence of about 1 in 100,000 newborns in the general population. Oculocutaneous tyrosinemia, Type II, is caused by a deficiency of tyrosine aminotransferase (TAT). It clinically presents with hyperkeratotic plaques on the hands and soles of the feet and photophobia due to deposition of tyrosine crystals within the cornea. Tyrosinemia Type III is an extremely rare disorder caused by a deficiency of 4-hydroxyphenylpyruvic dioxygenase. It has been associated with ataxia and mild mental retardation. These disorders are diagnosed by observing elevated tyrosine by plasma amino acid chromatography and characteristic tyrosine metabolites by urine organic acid analysis. In tyrosinemia Type I, methionine is also elevated, reflecting impaired hepatocellular function. Urine organic acids show elevated p-hydroxy-phenyl organic acids in each type of tyrosinemia, and the pathognomic succinylacetone in tyrosinemia Type I. Diagnosis can be confirmed by enzyme or molecular studies in tyrosinemia Type I. Therapy consists of a diet low in phenylalanine and tyrosine for each of the tyrosinemias and 2-(2-nitro-4-trifluoromethylbenzoyl)-1,3-cyclohexanedione (NTBC) for tyrosinemia Type I.

Neonatal Screening by Tandem Mass Spectrometry

After completing this article, readers should be able to: 1. List the major categories of diseases detectable by expanded newborn screening. 2. Give examples of the benefits and limitations of screening by tandem mass spectrometry. 3. Describe the appropriate follow-up for an abnormal screening result. The screening of newborns for inherited metabolic disorders is a well-established public health activity, first implemented in the early 1960s for the presymptomatic identification of patients who have phenylketonuria (PKU). Since then, significant technological advances, most importantly the development of tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS), have enabled the detection of an increasing number of metabolic disorders in newborn blood. This article reviews the basic technology of MS/MS and its application to newborn screening, with the aim of highlighting the benefits and pointing out some limitations of this powerful technology. Early screening for PKU used the bacterial inhibition assay of Guthrie, in which inhibition of bacterial growth on an agar medium, introduced by the addition of a phenylalanine analog, was overcome by the presence of dried blood discs containing high levels of phenylalanine (such as from a PKU patient). This approach later was adapted for the detection of leucine in patients who have maple syrup urine disease (MSUD), methionine in patients who have classic homocystinuria, and tyrosine in patients who have tyrosinemia. Over the years, other techniques have been implemented to screen for additional disorders, including congenital hypothyroidism, biotinidase deficiency, galactosemia, hemoglobinopathies, and congenital adrenal hyperplasia. The classic criteria used to determine whether a disorder is suitable for screening include: 1) the disorder is clinically and biochemically well defined, 2) it is associated with significant morbidity or mortality, 3) an effective treatment is available, and 4) there is a simple and safe screening test. (1) By the early 1990s, all states offered screening for at least PKU and congenital hypothyroidism, …

Tyrosine aminotransferase deficiency in mink (Mustela vision): a model for human tyrosinemia II.

Mink pseudodistemper, a recessive disease associated with high blood tyrosine levels, is an animal analogue of the human inborn error of metabolism, tyrosinemia II. Affected mink and man have eye and skin lesions. Affected mink have no hepatic tyrosine aminotransferase (TAT) activity, as measured immunologically and biochemically. Hepatic mitochondrial aspartate aminotransferase is increased to 188% of control. This new genetic animal model of TAT deficiency should allow new studies of tyrosine metabolism.

Response of the lysosomal system of the corneal epithelium to tyrosine-induced cell injury.

Rats fed excess tyrosine develop corneal epithelial disease which parallels that found in humans with tyrosine aminotransferase deficiency (tyrosinosis). In the rat, focal lesions develop within the central epithelium and contain crystals (presumably tyrosine) that disrupt cells. We have studied these lesions and localized acid phosphatase and aryl sulfatase at the electron microscope level. Within 60 hr after initiation of diet, cells within the lesions showed an increase in lysosomal enzyme activity. This activity was localized inside some of the crystal ghosts and in numerous lysosomes, including autophagic vacuoles and multivesicular bodies. After 84 hr on diet the entire central corneal epithelium was disrupted and polymorphonuclear leukocytes had infiltrated the area. Crystals were phagocytosed by or developed within polymorphonuclear leukocytes. We hypothesize that crystals form within epithelial cells, disrupt first their lysosomes, and then cells, leading to externalization of lysosomal enzymes. This extracellular lysosomal enzyme release may be responsible for the acute inflammatory response that ensues.

Multiple biochemical effects of a series of x-ray induced mutations at the albino locus in the mouse.

Further studies of the four radiation-induced lethal albino mutations causing glucose 6-phosphatase deficiency in the mouse have shown that there is also a deficiency of tyrosine aminotransferase in the newborn albino mutants. These two enzymes can be induced in fetal and newborn heterozygous or homozygous normal littermate controls by injection of glucagon or dibutyryl cyclic AMP, but not in the albino mutants. Microsomal NADH-cytochrome c reductase was found to be increased in the albino mutants. The multiple biochemical abnormalities in the albino mutants, in addition to the lack of gene dosage effect in the heterozygotes, suggest the involvement of genes other than the structural genes for particular enzymes. When a new radiation-induced lethal albino mutation was tested against the four original alleles, complementation resulted, and double heterozygotes were found to be viable, with normal enzyme levels.

The origin of urinary p-hydroxyphenylpyruvate in a patient with hepatic cytosol tyrosine aminotransferase deficiency

Results of renal clearance measurements of p-hydroxyphenylpyruvic acid in a a patient with tyrosine aminotransferase deficiency, phenylpyruvic acid in three phenylketonuric patients and imidazole pyruvic acid in a histidinemic patient are presented. Comparison with the corresponding creatinine clearances indicates net tubular secretion of p-hydroxyphenylpyruvic acid and imidazole pyruvic acid. Evidence is presented that phenylpyruvic acid may also be actively secreted by the renal tubules. These results, together with earlier studies on the tissue distribution of tyrosine aminotransferase and p-hydroxyphenylpyruvate hydroxylase, indicate that urinary pHPPA in our tyrosinemia patient and phenylpyruvic acid in phenylketonuria are of extra-renal and extra-hepatic origin.

The source of aromatic ketoacids in tyrosinaemia and phenylketonuria

The studies reported here support the observation that elevated excretion of p-hydroxyphenylpyruvic acid could occur in the presence of deficient hepatic tyrosine aminotransferase activity. The ketoacid need not have come either from the liver or from the kidney. It appears possible that the urinary ketoacid, both in tyrosine aminotransferase deficiency and in phenylketonuria, originates not in the liver but in other tissues which possess transaminase but which lack hydroxylase activity. What emerges from these studies is the view that the consequence of a single enzyme deficiency in one tissue may be modified by the distribution of isozymes or related enzymes in that tissue as well as in other tissues.

Metabolic Studies in a Patient with Hepatic Cytosol Tyrosine Aminotransferase Deficiency

Extract: Metabolic studies on a patient having multiple congenital anomalies and defective hepatic soluble tyrosine aminotransferase activity are presented. The activities of hepatic mitochondrial tyrosine aminotransferase and soluble p-hydroxyphenylpyryvate hydroxylase were normal. When untreated, levels of tyrosine in plasma rose as high as 62 mg/100 ml. He had phenolic aciduri (3.1–4.9 mg/mg creatinine) with p-hydroxyphenylpyruvic acid (0.6-1.8 mg/mg creatinine), p-hydroxyphenylacetic acid (0.7–1.2 mg/mg creatinine), p-hydroxyphenyllactic acid (1.0–1.7 mg/mg creatinine), and N-acetyltyrosine (0.9–1.6 mg/mg creatinine). These metabolites were identified by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. Excretion of p-tyramine was grossly elevated (17–44 μg/mg creatinine) and was not reduced by orally administered antibiotics. Oral tolerance tests showed rapid conversion of phenylpyruvic acid to phenylalanine and of phenylalanine to tyrosine. Speculation: The results described suggest the need to reexamine subcellular distribution of enzymes both in normal subkects and in patients with inborn errors of metabolism. When methods are developed to fractionate tyrosine aminotransferase, it may become apparent that there are several isozymes under individual genetic control. Accumulation of an intermediary metabolite should not be taken as conclusive evidence of a primary abnormality of its catabolism. The similarity of the findings in the urine of a patient with hepatic soluble tyrosine aminotransferase deficiency and in tyrosyluric neonates suggests that delayed maturation of soluble tyrosine aminotransferase rather than p-hydroxyphenylpyruvate hydroxylase might be present in at least some of these infants.