Urinary free amino acids pattern in protein-energy malnourished sudanese children

Abstract

The urinary free amino acid pattern in a morning urine sample of Sudanese children suffering from Kwashiorkor and marasmus were determined before and during the course of treatment up to the 2nd week. The urinary amino acid/total urinary N (3.62) was found to be almost constant for Kwashiorkor patients, while the mean for marasmic patients was found to be 27. The concentration of leucine, valine, phenylalanine, methylhistidine, lysine, hydroxylysine and beta-amino-isobutyric acid was elevated in marasmic children, while the concentration of most of these amino acids was at a lower level in Kwashiorkor patients. The significance of these differences was discussed in relation to the biochemical detection of these deficiencies in field nutrition surveys.

Difference between kwashiorkor and marasmus: Comparative meta-analysis of pathogenic characteristics and implications for treatment

“…It was demonstrated that kwashiorkor children have a high disturbance of amino acid metabolism with a consistent and significant reduction of plasma essential amino acids levels with individual amino acids affected to different degrees (60)(61)(62)(63)(64). Some non-essential amino acids remained at average levels (62) or might be kept at high level in the plasma of these children (61,63,64).…”

“…It was demonstrated that kwashiorkor children have a high disturbance of amino acid metabolism with a consistent and significant reduction of plasma essential amino acids levels with individual amino acids affected to different degrees (60)(61)(62)(63)(64). Some non-essential amino acids remained at average levels (62) or might be kept at high level in the plasma of these children (61,63,64). In contrast, there was a particularly marked reduction of cysteine in erythrocytes and methionine in plasma (Grade A -Figure 3) and the flux of these amino acids during whole body protein turnover was compromised.…”

Serum and Urine Amino Acid Patterns during the First Month of Life in Small-for-Date Infants

“…Many newborns that are small for the ges tational age (small for date; SFD) show some clinical features indicating that prenatal nu trition is impaired [29], They also present some biochemical abnormalities which are characteristic of protein malnutrition [29], Numerous papers have been devoted to studies on plasma and urine amino acids in protein-energy malnutrition [3,4,10,11,13,18,21,23,27] and in experimental protein undernutrition [1,5,24,26] but these works have not always shown concordant results…”