Studies on Amino Acid Metabolism in Blood Diseases Part Ⅰ Amino Acid Metabolism in Various Blood Diseases

Amino acid metabolism in various blood diseases was studied by the method of column chromatography of Stein-Moore. 1) Serum free amino acid levels in hypoplastic anemia was low, especially glycine and alanine, and was found unidentified ninhydrine positive substances. 2) Amino acid fractionation in essential hypochromic anemia revealed no significant abnormalities in comparison to that of normal individuale. 3) In leukemia the peaks of amino acid fractions were either higher or lower depending upon the type of leukemia, but as the disease was controlled by treatment, the pattern of amino acid fractionation approached the normal pattern in all the cases. 4) In renal anemia a low amino acid fractionation pattern apparently resembling that of hypoplastic anemia was obtained. 5) In pernicious anemia there was a high amino acid fractionation pattern, indicating poor utilization of amino acids before treatment, but after treatment the pattern was normalized. 6) In multiple myeloma amino acid metabolism was unique and as in hypoplastic anemia there were unidentified substances, X substance, which were considered to be intermediate metabolites. 7) The pattern of amino acid fractionation in idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura and in agranulocytosis exhibited some resemblance to that of hypoplastic anemia in that it contained unidentified substances, but the overall pattern of the former was different from that of the latter.