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Urinary Aminoimidazolecarboxamide in the Rat as Influenced by Dietary Vitamin B₁₂, Methionine and Thyroid Powder^1,2,3,

Department of Nutritional Sciences, University of California, Berkeley, California

The objectives of this investigation were to 1) determine whether aminoimidazolecarboxamide (AIC), like formiminoglutamic acid, was elevated in the urine of rats fed a vitamin B₁₂-methionine-deficient diet; 2) assess the value of thyroid powder supplementation in enhancing the development of vitamin B₁₂ deficiency; and 3) study the effect of supplementary methionine on AIC excretion. Vitamin B₁₂-supplemented controls averaged about 20 µg of urinary AIC/day. Rats fed the vitamin B₁₂-deficient diet for 6 weeks or more excreted at least twice as much. Thyroid powder did not alter urinary AIC excretion, nor did it enlarge the difference in weight gain between vitamin B₁₂-supplemented and deficient animals. Injection of 10 µg of vitamin B₁₂ or supplementation of the diet with 2% of DL-methionine lowered AIC excretion of vitamin B₁₂-deficient rats to the level of vitamin B₁₂-supplemented controls, but had no effect on the AIC excretion of the control animals. The results of this investigation are consistent with the theory that vitamin B₁₂ influences folic acid metabolism at the level of methionine biosynthesis.

² These data were taken from a thesis submitted by Susan M. Oace in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Ph.D. degree, University of California, Berkeley, December, 1967.

³ Portions of these data were presented at the VIIth International Congress of Nutrition, Hamburg, August, 1966. (Stokstad, E. L. R., S. M. Oace and C. Kutzbach 1967 Proceedings of the VIIth International Congress of Nutrition, vol. 5. F. Vieweg and Son, Braunschweig, p. 583.)

⁴ Present address: Department of Nutrition, University of California, Davis, California 95616.

Manuscript received 5 February 1968.