Abstract
Over 300 compounds have been reported in human urine (1-4). These include inorganic compounds, organic acids, sugars, amino acids, purines and related compounds, enzymes, hormones, vitamins and their metabolites, estrogens, and many other organic compounds. The quantities of these constituents found in individual urine samples represent a wealth of information that can be used to evaluate body functions. Such quantitative data have been collected on a limited basis for many years and, as a result, many molecular constituents have been shown to have pathological significance. For example, a high uric acid content is associated with gout(5) and some leukemias (6); a high urocanic acid content is sometimes found in conjunction with asthma(7); large amounts of phenolic and indole amines appear to be excreted by schizophrenics(8), etc.
The Molecular Anatomy (MAN) program at Oak Ridge National Laboratory(9) is concerned with the description, at the molecular level, of the structure and organization of cells and tissue. One of the aims of this program is to develop high-resolution, automated systems for the analysis of low-molecular-weight substances found either free in cells or as constituents of macro molecules. A logical extension of this work is the further development of such analytical systems for use with human body fluids. This laboratory is now developing an automatic, high resolution analytical system for quantitatively determining the molecular constituents of human urine.
The approach is to modify and expand the capabilities of an existing nucleotide analyzer (10) for use as a urine analyzer. Initial results indicate that this concept is feasible; i.e., a high-pressure, high-resolution modification of the nucleotide analyzer has resolved over 100 chromatographic peaks of ultraviolet-absorbing constituents from a 2-ml urine sample. Twelve of these peaks have been tentatively identified.
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