Creatin and creatinin / by Edward Mellanby.

  • Mellanby, Edward, Sir, 1884-1955.
Date:
[1908?]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Creatin and creatinin / by Edward Mellanby. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    bolic changes in the tissues, since it is constant in each person and varies almost proportionately as the weight of the individual. Folin’s method of estimation has been widely adopted for creatinin estimation in urine. Van Hoogenhuyze and Verploegh (13) carried out a large series of experiments to investigate the effect of exercise on nitrogenous meta¬ bolism particularly in regard to creatinin. Whereas they found a close relation between the excreted urea and the intaken proteid, the excreted creatinin showed no such agreement. When eating a sufficient diet— creatinin free—strenuous work did not affect the creatinin elimination. In the case of a subject who was doing a fast for 14 days as a public exhibition, on the 10th day performance of muscular work produced a small rise of creatinin excreted. Van Hoogenhuyze and Verploegh therefore came to the conclusion that muscular work only produces an increased elimination of creatinin when “ the body is forced to live at the cost of its own tissues/’ The metabolism of the starving subject seems certainly very much modified from the normal condition, the uric acid and creatinin excreted being very low compared to a person on a creatinin-free diet. Van Hoogenhuyze and Verploegh suggest that the intensity of living is in this case very low, being accompanied at the same time by a low creatinin production. Working on a dog which was fed on oatmeal and milk Noel Pa ton (24) found a relation between the creatinin excreted and the intaken proteid. Horner experimenting on a dog found the addition of fibrin to the food raised the output of creatinin, although flesh freed from creatin did not do so. It is questionable however whether these results of Van Hoogenhuyze and Verploegh, Noel Paton and Dorner indicate that the increased creatinin comes directly from proteid. It no doubt simply implies an increased metabolism, affecting all the organs of the body and therefore that organ responsible for the formation of creatin or creatinin. Another experimenter, Koch (15), has suggested the hypothesis that creatinin is a measure of metabolic change of the methyl group and that the methyl groups of lecithin and cephalin can all be accounted for by the methyl groups of creatinin excreted. This hypothesis would have to be put to much greater proof than it has up to the present experienced before being accepted, but it is valuable in that it suggests a method of investigating the precursor of creatinin in the body. The methyl group of creatin has received attention from Czernecki, Jaffe and Dorner. The increased excretion of creatin after glyco- 29 PH. XXXVI.