556 NIACIN 



in non-deficient subjects, to levels temporarily above normal.^"' ^°' ^^' ^^"" 

 Wooley^" found that tryptophan was less effective than nicotinic acid in 

 increasing the nicotinic acid level in skeletal muscle of deficient rabbits, 

 although both substances were equally effective in increasing the liver 

 nicotinic acid level and in alleviating deficiency symptoms. On the other 

 hand Williams et air'' found that nicotinic acid was less effective than tryp- 

 tophan in maintaining levels of coenzyme I and II in the liver of rats. This 

 seemed to be particularly true when protein-free rations were fed.'*" How- 

 ever, in later studies Feigelson et al.^'^'^ found that nicotinic acid and trypto- 

 phan were equally effective, on an ec^uimolecular basis, as precursors for 

 liver pyridine nucleotides, except that administration of tryptophan at 

 levels considerably in excess of requirements seemed to increase liver pyri- 

 dine nucleotides above "normal." This effect was not observed with nico- 

 tinic acid. 



4. Urinary Excretion of Nicotinic Acid and Other Substances 



a. Urinary Pigments 



For the first two or three years following the discovery of nicotinic acid 

 as the pellagra-preventive vitamin, interest in using urine for diagnostic 

 purposes centered about the excretion of porphyrin and other pigments. 

 Beckh, Ellinger, and Spies^* devised a test (the B.E.S. test) which they 

 believed to measure urinary porphyrin and which seemed to have a diag- 

 nostic relationship to pellagra. However, further investigations by Watson 

 and associates^^'^2 showed that the B.E.S. test measured urorosein, which 



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