Kenji Kinoshita

Postoperative Improvement of Hypertension in Primary Aldosteronism and Cushing’s Syndrome

In 24 cases of primary aldosteronism and 30 cases of Cushings syndrome, the incidence of preoperative hypertension and postoperative improvement of hypertension was investigated. All the cases of primary aldosteronism showed preoperative hypertension. Postoperative improvement of hypertension was observed in 21 out of those 24 cases. In 14 of these 21 cases, hypertension improved within 1 month postoperatively. In Cushings syndrome, 23 out of 30 cases showed preoperative hypertension which improved in 20 cases postoperatively. They needed longer periods of time before improvement of hypertension than the cases of primary aldosteronism. The pathological findings in renal biopsy specimens seem to be correlated with postoperative improvement of hypertension in both diseases.

Gas chromatographic estimation of urinary Δ5-pregnene-3β, 17α, 20β-triol

Abstract The gas chromatographic method for the determination of urinary pregnanetriol(5 β -pregnane-3 α , 17 α , 20 α -triol), pregnanetriolone(5 β -pregnane-3 α , 17 α , 20 α -triol-11-one) and pregnanetetrol(5 β -pregnane-3 α , 11 β , 17 α , 20 α -tetrol) previously described has been modified for the simultaneous estimation of Δ 5-pregnenetriol( Δ 5-pregnene-3 β , 17 α , 20 α -triol). Urinary Δ 5-pregnenetriol was measurable at the sensitivity of 10 μ g/24 hour using 1/10 aliquot of 24-hour urine by the method employing single alumina column chromatography for purification prior to gas chromatography. It was found that the steroid was significantly elevated in the urine in patients with congenital adrenal hyperplasia and also in a patient with Cushings syndrome due to adrenal carcinoma.

Prebiotic Origin of Glycolytic Metabolism: Histidine and Cysteine can Produce Acetyl CoA from Glucose via Reactions Homologous to Non-phosphorylated Entner-Doudoroff Pathway

Conversion of glucose to pyruvate via reactions homologous to the non-phosphorylated Entner-Doudoroff (non-P ED) pathway could be achieved in the presence of two amino acid catalysts, cysteine and histidine: cystine oxidizes glucose to gluconic acid by the reaction homologous to glucose dehydrogenase and histidine changes gluconic acid to 2-keto-3-deoxy gluconic acid, then to pyruvate by the reaction homologous to gluconic acid dehydratase and 2-keto-3-deoxy gluconate aldolase, respectively. Pyruvate can be converted to acetyl CoA by the reaction with CoA, TPP and FAD in the presence of cysteine and histidine, which resembles pyruvate dehydrogenase reaction. It was found that gluconic acid dehydration alone is non-specific, in contrast to other reactions. The non-P ED pathway is used by some extreme thermophiles in bacteria and archaea, usually thought as the oldest among the contemporary organisms. This study suggests the possible contribution of amino acid to the origin of the glycolytic pathway.