ABSTRACT
Pancreolauryl test was studied in 17 subjects; four were normal, eleven were patients with chronic pancreatitis, and two were subjects with other gastrointestinal disorders. The pancreolauryl test was performed in urine and serum. Patients with chronic pancreatitis who had positive stool fat had a positive pancreolauryl test at 100% in both urine and serum, while those with negative stool fat had positive results of pancreolauryl test at 28.57% in urine and 60% in serum. However, the test gave 75% positive results in normal serum, but it was 100% negative in urine. Therefore, the cut off point for pancreolauryl test at 4.5 ตg/ml may not be suitable for Thai patients. The false positive of this test in serum may be caused by hemolysis. Pancreolauryl test in urine may be useful to help in diagnosing chronic pancreatitis in which morphological abnormality cannot be found.
ABSTRACT
The ability of the human normal uterine cervix and cervical carcinoma to interconvert estradiol-17β and estrone is due to the activity of 17β-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase (17β-HSD). Human cervical 800 x g supernatant fractions were analyzed by incubating with 3H-estradiol (20 nM) and NAD (0.25 ตmol) in 50 mM Tris buffer at pH 8.0. The incubation was terminated by adding 1 ml of 100% methanol and the supernatants were evaporated in air. The dry residues were resuspended in methanol, and aliquots were chromatographed in silica gel thin layer plates in benzene : ethanol (9 : 1, V : V). The 17β-HSD activity was determined from the amount of estrone formed and expressed as nanomoles of estrone formed/mg protein X h. The 17β-HSD activity was higher in normal cervix than in cervical carcinoma. Estradiol-17β added to incabation mixture caused a slight increase in enzyme activity only in cervical carcinoma while it had no effect in normal tissues. Progesterone administration increased 17β-HSD activity in some cases of normal and carcinoma cervix. These results suggest that changes in enzyme concentrations may play a physiologic role in the regulation of tissue levels of estradiol-17β.
ABSTRACT
Beta-aminoisobutyric acid (βAIBA); a degradation product of thymine in both deoxyribonucleic (DNA) and transfer ribonucleic acid (tRNA) was determined in single urine specimens from 65 normal healthy subjects and 60 patients with cancer of various organs by thin layer chromatography. The normal control value from both males and females was 74.01+25.81 nmol βAIBA/µmol creatinine. The excretion levels were significantly increased in patients with several types of tumor (146.79+137.64 nmol βAIBA/µmol creatinine). Increased levels of βAIBA excretion may reflect changes in DNA metabolism or increased turnover of tRNA in tumor. The changes of βAIBA excretion levels were also studied in cancer patients before radiotherapy. The levels returned to normal when they were in remission but remained high in patients whose clinical conditions were not improved. The same results were also found in patients with choriocarcinoma during chemotherapy. Therefore, determination of urinary βAIBA level could be used as a potential biological marker for monitoring the effectiveness of therapy in malignancies.