METABOLISM 



Benson et al.^^ obtained values ranging from 4-8 to 12-3 with an 

 average of 7-8 /xg. per 100 ml. for the aneurine content of the blood of 

 healthy children, values not differing appreciably from those obtained 

 by other workers for adults. They commented on the fact that daily 

 variations in the blood aneurine of an individual did not follow the 

 daily urinary aneurine outputs of the same individual, and that the 

 blood concentration bore no relationship to the absolute amount or 

 proportion of the dietary aneurine excreted in the luine. 



It has been reported ^^ that the amount of free aneurine in the 

 maternal blood decreases during parturition, whereas the " bound " 

 aneurine concentration remains imchanged. It is suggested that the 

 decrease in the free aneurine concentration is due to an increase in the 

 amount of acetylcholine hydrolysed, to changes in the nervous action 

 and to increased passage through the placenta. 



When aneurine hydrochloride (i mg. per kg.) was injected intra- 

 venously into normal dogs, a temporary increase in the blood co- 

 carboxylase occurred. ^^ The injection of insulin (i I.U. per kg.) into a 

 normal animal was also followed by a rise in the blood cocarboxylase. 

 If aneurine hydrochloride was injected into an insulin-treated animal, 

 a still greater increase in the blood concentration of cocarboxylase, 

 together with a decrease in the concentration of inorganic phosphate, 

 occiured. No significant changes of this type, however, resulted from 

 the injection of aneurine hydrochloride into depancreatised hyper- 

 glycemic dogs, and these responded normally when controlled with 

 insulin, except that the blood inorganic phosphate remained constant. 

 The results suggest that insulin increases the phosphorylation of 

 aneurine. 



Because the administration of aneurine to rabbits or humans 

 was found to increase the capacity of their serum to inhibit the 

 haemolytic action of digitonin, D. L. Farley ^^ suggested that anti- 

 haemolytic activity could be used as an index of aneurine status, 

 but the observation does not appear to have been made use of for 

 this purpose. 



Distribution of Aneurine in Blood Elements 



A number of workers have studied the distribution of aneurine in 

 the blood elements. The low proportion of aneurine in the plasma has 

 already been noted. This was confirmed by E. Deutsch,^' who ob- 

 tained values of 9 to 16 /zg. per 100 ml. for normal blood ; of this only 

 3 to 10 % was present in the plasma. The aneurine content of leuco- 

 cytes and platelets were reported ^^ to be ten-fold that of the erythro- 

 cytes. In leukemias, the concentration in leucocytes and platelets 

 increased five-fold. ^^ The yeast fermentation method estimates in 



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