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The Utilization of Tritium‐Labelled Folic Acid in Megaloblastic Anaemia
Author(s) -
Chanarin I.,
Belcher E. H.,
Berry V.
Publication year - 1963
Publication title -
british journal of haematology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.907
H-Index - 186
eISSN - 1365-2141
pISSN - 0007-1048
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2141.1963.tb05469.x
Subject(s) - folic acid , urine , clearance , urinary system , megaloblastic anemia , chemistry , megaloblastic anaemia , medicine , physiology , biochemistry , endocrinology , food science , urology
The retention of small doses of parenteral folic acid in man provides good evidence of the state of the folic‐acid stores. Not only is a greater amount retained in patients with haematological evidence of folic‐acid deficiency but these doses, when given intravenously, are cleared from the plasma to the tissues more rapidly than in control subjects (Chanarin, Mollin and Anderson, 1958; Chanarin and Bennett, 1962a). The amount of folic acid retained is assessed by subtracting the urinary loss measured by microbiological assay from the dose administered. However, after small doses of folic acid the urine may contain not only folic acid itself but also breakdown products and analogues which may be unavailable to microbiological assay organisms (Johns, Sperti and Burgen, 1961). This problem can be overcome by using isotopically labelled folic acid and measuring both the radioactivity and microbiological activity of urine samples following standard doses of folic acid. This paper reports the results of such an investigation.