Sulphocysteine in the Urine of the Blotched Kenya Genet

Abstract

THE urinary amino-acid excretion of the blotched Kenya genet was first shown to be unusual by Datta and Harris¹. In a survey of the urinary amino-acid excretion of various animals from the London Zoo, they found that the genet had an exceptionally high excretion of cystine. This was determined by paper chromatographic and polarographic analysis. A large quantity of cysteic acid was formed on oxidation of the urinary amino-acids, and it was reported that the cystine excretion was 1.0–1.5 mg per ml. This was unusual as it represented a greater solubility than that obtained by dissolving known cystine in a solution containing an equivalent concentration of salts and urea². In cystinuria, a human inherited metabolic disorder, cystine is excreted at this concentration but gives rise to frequent calculus formation, and there was no evidence that the genet ever formed calculi. The other interesting feature was that in human cystinuria there was a failure of tubular reabsorption of lysine, arginine and ornithine as well as cystine, whereas the genet had no disorder of basic amino-acid excretion.