[A study of the measurement of p-aminohippurate in diabetic subjects]

Glomerular filtration rate has been found to be elevated in the early stage of insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus and has been proposed to play a pathogenetic role in the development of diabetic nephropathy. However, the reports about the change in renal plasma flow (RPF) among diabetic subjects were inconsistent, suggesting that the presence of hyperglycemia may in some way interfere the procedures of RPF measurement. Recently, it has been reported that the glucose in the urine may react with p-aminohippurate (PAH), a widely used marker for RPF measurement, and influence the chemical measurement of PAH, misleading the result of RPF value. In fact, we obtained the decrease of PAH value in urine samples obtained from diabetic subjects during the storage for one week in frozen condition. In order to clarify the factors which may influence the glucose-PAH reaction, we have conducted various in vitro studies. The decrease of PAH values was dose-dependent to urine glucose. The pH of the test solution or urine was also found to greatly influence the result of PAH measurement when glucose was present. The analysis of glucose-PAH reactants by HPLC suggested that the amino residue of PAH might be reacted with glucose, producing the glycation product (Schiff base). The rate of glycation of PAH was time- and pH-dependent. However, when the reaction time was prolonged at the last step of PAH measurement after the addition of the acid solution, the decrease of PAH value was gradually corrected reaching to the theoretical value in 7 hours.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)