Project Title:
16,
Nuclear Medicine Technology and Other Health Applications
Extension and Improvement of Radiographic and Isotopic
Diagnostic Techniques
RX-01-03-€c)
Technical Progress in FY 1973:
(Conce'd.)
-
A metabolic study of the L-isomers of carbon-14 labeled tryptophan,
kynurenine, and hydroxykynurenine in patients with scleroderma was conducted
at
the F,
W.
Verwoord Hospital
in Pretoria,
South Africa,
The purpose of
the study was to determine whether the South African type of scleroderma
had metabolic abnormalities similar to those of the American type.
South African scleroderma patients were male caucasian miners whose
began with silicosis followed by later development of scleroderma.
The
illness
Breath
carbon dioxide samples were collected in sodium hydroxide over a 24-hour
period after the C-14 labeled doses were given and 24-hour urine samples
were collected for a three day period,
The breath 14co, level for those
given tryptophan-7a-C-14 was 6.3 - 8.9 percent; L-hydroxykynurenine-keto-C-14
was 30.6 - 37 percent and L-kynurenine-kero-C-14 was 48.6 - 63.3 percent.
The values are similar to those found in the American scleroderma patients
given the same compounds,
Kynurenine, hydroxykynurenine, xanthurenic acid,
kynurenic acid, picolinic acid, quniolinic acid, N-methylnicotinamide,
N-methyl-2-pyridone-5-carboxamide and nicotinic acid will be isolated from
the urine by carrier techniques and the carbon-14 content of these urinary
components determined.
The results from these analyses should help determine
the particular metabolic abnormalities in males with this disease.
This long
range project has made little progress due to insufficient technical assistance.
The South African Atomic Energy Board (SAAEB) is sending Dr. E.J.P. de Bruin
to Brookhaven to spend a year of post-doctorate study at their expense and to
help with the collaborative projects,
Dr, de Bruin will work on the scleroderma, pellagra, and hepatic tumor problems,
The tryptophan metabolic studies in prisoners with a sensitivity to
primaquin drugs in the treatment of malaria, were expanded to include a
study of kynurenine metabolism,
In collaboration with Dr. Carson at
Stateville Prison, Illinois, urine samples were collected from five
prisoners before and after loading with tryptophan,
The urines were
analyzed for 16 tryptophan metabolites to provide control values for other
studies of the American Negro and African Bantu,
Some subjects were
given 400 mg doses of carbon-14 labeled L-kynurenine and the study
requires several more subjects receiving 200 mg doses,
Observations reported last year suggest that South African pellagrins
have subnormal vitamin Bg coenzyme levels in addition to the previously
proposed stress-induced increase in the activity of tryptophan pyrrolase
ora ]
k of feedback control of this enzyme by low pyridine nucleotides,
A grag {strongly recommended by the Japanese-American Study Commission)
has
“obtained from the DHEW to provide two technicians to continue this
inte
onally important project.
In 1972 a Limited number of pellagra patients were studied during
the pellagra season in South Africa,
At the request of Dr. Roux, President,
and Dr. Jansen, Head of the Life Sciences Division, SAAEB, the study will
(See Continuation Sheet)
b119214
RX-61