Studies on Nucleic Acid Metabolism in Pulmonary Tuberculosis Part 1. Uric acid Metabolism and the Effects of Vitamin B(12) and Folic Acid

Observing the amount of uric acid excretion into the urine in the healthy and various stages of pulmonary tuberculosis cases and studying the effects of vitamin B(12) and folic acid, and the following results were obtained. 1. An increase in the amount of uric acid excretion into the urine was noted in the cases of moderately and far advanced pulmonary tuberculosis. 2. In the healthy and postoperative cases of pulmonary tuberculosis cases, an increase, both in the concentration and the amount, of uric acid excretion into the urine was noted one hour after the administration of vitamin B(12). A slight decrease or unchanged in the amount of uric acid excretion into the urine was observed, one hour after the administration of folic acid, and an increase of it was seen in the urine after 4 hours. 3. The effects of vitamin B(12) and folic acid were less evident in the far advanced cases of pulmonary tuberculosis and rather marked in the minimal cases. 4. The same effects were observed in the cases who had the breakfast only of rice and soybean soup at the same time with the administration of vitamin B(12) or folic acid. Increased uric acid excretion into the urine was observed in the cases who had breakfast alone. 5. The effects of these vitamines were quite the same in the cases who had breakfast and vitamin B(12) or folic acid at the same time and also in the cases who had PAS-calcium later on. 6. It was supposed that vitamin B(12) and folic acid did not have an effect upon dietary purine bodies metabolism, but promote general metabolism and thus effect upon nucleic acid metabolism. Vitamin B(12) and folic acid have presumably regulated the uric acid metabolism in the cases of far advanced pulmonary tuberculosis.