Intracellular amino acid concentrations in children with chronic renal insufficiency Pediatric Nephrology

We studied amino acid concentrations in granu- locytes and plasma of 24 children with chronic renal failure and 15 healthy children. Granulocytes were isolated from 10 ml of blood using a dextran-Ficoll-H ypaque procedure. Intracellular levels of leucine, isoleucine, methionine, phenylalanine, lysine, histidine, tyrosine, and arginine were significantly lower in children with chronic renal failure than healthy children. There were no significant differences in intracellular and plasma amino acid concentrations be- tween children with chronic renal failure on a well-ba- lanced protein-restrict ed diet and children with chronic renal failure with a normal protein intake.