Urinary Excretion of Porphyrin Precursors and Coproporphyrin in Healthy Females on Oral Contraceptives

Coproporphyrin I and III excretion in bile and urine

“…A discrimination between these two natural isomers appears to be made in their excretion, since they are found in unequal amounts in the urine and bile of normal man: the type III isomer predominates over the type I isomer in urine (1)(2)(3)(4)(5)(6), whereas the reverse is true in bile (7,8). In liver disease and in acquired or genetic disturbances characterized by reduced hepatic excretory function, there is an increase in the total uriReceived for publication 10 May 1972 and in revised form 14 July 1972. nary excretion of coproporphyrins (3)(4)(5)(6)9), but with a concomitant shift in the isomer ratio towards a predonminance of the type I compound.…”

“…In liver disease and in acquired or genetic disturbances characterized by reduced hepatic excretory function, there is an increase in the total uriReceived for publication 10 May 1972 and in revised form 14 July 1972. nary excretion of coproporphyrins (3)(4)(5)(6)9), but with a concomitant shift in the isomer ratio towards a predonminance of the type I compound. A series of experiments were undertaken in this study to characterize the hepatic transport process for the two coproporphyrin isomers in order to define the possible mechanism for the unequal distribution of the isomers in urine and bile during normal and impaired hepatic function.…”

Urinary Porphyrins and Their Precursors in Human Pregnancy and After Delivery

“…(3) Female hormones given to porphyric women either precipitate an acute attack (Eales, 1963;Watson, 1964) or prevent the appearance of relapse (Perlroth et al, 1965) on those women in whom exacerbation of clinical symptoms occurs regularly with menstruation. (4) An increased urinary excretion of 5-ALA in a number of healthy women taking oral contraceptives has been observed (Koskelo et al, 1966) (5) raised levels of steroid hormone metabolites have been found in acute intermittent porphyria (Goldberg et al, 1969). Furthermore, the observation of Granick and Kappas (1 967) that a number of ~-B -H steroids of the C,, and C,, series strongly stimulate prophyrin synthesis in chick embryo liver cell culture is worth noting; this and the induction of the initial and rate controlling enzyme of haem, biosynthesis, namely ALA synthetase, cause by certain steroid hormone metabolies (Levere and Granick, 1967;Moore, 1970) provide evidence for an intimate relationship between these steroids and porphyrinosynthesis in liver.…”

Coproporphyrin Excretion in Amniotic Fluid and Urine from Premature Infants: A Possible Maturation Defect

“…Both isomers are produced primarily in liver and bone marrow and are found normally in urine and feces [12]. Coproporphyrin excretion in urine has been studied in adults [2,3,[8][9][10][11]181, but not in infants or amniotic fluid.…”