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Serum ‘Uracil+Uridine’Levels in Pernicious Anaemia
Author(s) -
PARRY T. E.,
BLACKMORE J. A.
Publication year - 1976
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.1365-2141.1976.tb03602.x
Subject(s) - uracil , pernicious anaemia , uridine , medicine , gastroenterology , chemistry , biochemistry , rna , dna , gene
S ummary . The serum ‘uracil+ uridine’level, expressed as uracil, has been measured in 21 cases of vitamin B 12 deficiency, in which the serum folate was normal, and compared with the level in 97 normal subjects. The level in the vitamin B 12 deficient group (11.9 μmol/l.) was significantly lower than in the controls (15.7 μmol/l., P < 0.005). Nine of the former were complicated by systemic illness but the clinical and haematological features in the remaining 12 were consistent with the diagnosis of pernicious anaemia in relapse. The serum uracil level in this group was even lower (10.21 μmol/l., P < 0.01). This finding is unexpected in view of the generally accepted indirect role of vitamin B 12 in the methylation of deoxyuridine mono‐phosphate to deoxythymidine monophosphate. Reasons are given for not accepting these results as reflecting the main biochemical lesion in vitamin B 12 deficiency. Although they do not give direct support to an impairment in the methylation of deoxyuridine monophosphate, they do not exclude it as they test only one possible metabolic pathway and moreover they could represent the result of more than one action of vitamin B 12 on uracil metabolism. They do show, however, that some aspect of uracil metabolism other than methylation is affected in vitamin B 12 deficiency in man.