Liver Kynureninase Activity of an Infant with Infantile Spasm

Paper chromatographic examination on urinary tryptophan metabolites following an oral dose of L-tryptophan, 100mg/kg, was carried out on infants and children with convulsive disorders including infantile spasm.The incidence in cases with abnormal tryptophan metabolism was found to be higher in cases with convulsion than in those without convulsion.A detailed study on an infant with typical infantile spasm revealed that there was a marked increase in urinary excretion of kynurenine, kynurenic acid and xanthurenic acid following the oral dose of tryptophan, and that the glutamic oxaloacetic transaminase activity of erythrocytes, vitamin B6 levels of serum, and the kynureninase activity of the liver were within normal limits. From the present finding it was assumed that the abnormality in tryptophan metabolism observed in some cases with convulsive disorders might not be a cause of convulsion, but a sequential phenomenon associated with convulsion.