Urinary Excretion of Urocanic Acid In

S OF SPECIAL INTEREST NIOLECULAR AGING OF RABBIT HEMOGLOBIN DURING RED CELL LIFE SPAN. J. Rosa, G. Schapira and J. C. Dreyfus. From the H#{244}pital des EnfantsNlalades, Paris. Bull. Soc. chim. biol., 43: (4) 1961. On starch block electrophoresis, rabbit hemoglobin fractionates into a main fraction L1 and a minor fraction L5, incompletely separated. The use of valine-C14 and arginine-C14 as labels for hemoglobin has shown that the specific activity of the main fraction Varies with time: a rapidly ascending curve tip to the 5th day, then a plateau until the 50th day, followed by a decrease. The specific activity of the minor fraction, however, shows no plateau. It increases until the 40th day and then exceeds the main fraction. The only possible interpretation is that the minor fraction represents an aged fraction of hemoglobin, for simple metabolic exchanges between the major and minor fractions could only lead to an equalization of their specific activities. During aging of the red blood corpuscle, hemoglobin itself undergoes modifications: the nature of this aging process is discussed.-G. M. URINARY EXCRETION OF UROCANIC ACID IN M&. GALOBLASTIC ANAEMIA. M. C. Bennett and I. Chanarin. From M. R. C. Experimental Haematology Research Unit, St. Mary’s Hospital Medical School, London. Lancet 2:1095, 1961. One of the pathways of histidine catabolism is to urocanic acid, formimino-glutamic acid and glutaniic acid. The last step requires a competent folic acid co-enzyme to act as acceptor of the formimino-group. Attention has been focused on the urinary excretion of formimino-glutamic acid as an index of folic acid function in man. The authors find that the excretion of formimino-glutamic acid in the urine is usually accompanied by the excretion of urocanic acid and frequently urocanic acid is the predominant histidine derivative appearing in urine-I. C. STUDY OF Cmtoi 1osoNEs IN HUMAN LEUXAEMIA BY A DIRECT METHOD. M. A. Krislough and H. N. Robson. From University of Adelaide, South Australia. Brit. M. J. 2:1052-1055, 1961. EDTA appeared to have a coichicine-like effect on chromosomes. Thus, leukocyte concentrates of blood or marrow taken into EDTA as the anticoagulant gave adequate chromosome preparations without the need for preliminary culture. Chromosomal abnormalities in leukemia were confirmed by this method-I. C. COMPARISON OF EFFECTS OF PROTAMINE AND POLYBRENE, WITH SPECIAL EMPHASIS ON THE FACTOR VIII (ANTI-HEMOPHILIC GLOBULIN) For personal use only. on September 23, 2017. by guest www.bloodjournal.org From