The free amino acids in blood plasma of children with kwashiorkor and marasmus

F EW studies have been published on plasma amino acid concentrations in patients with kwashiorkor. Qualitative and semi-quanti-tative information obtained by paper chroma-tography suggest marked deviations from the normal pattern. ’ Using the quantitative tech-nics of Moore and Stein,2 Westall et al.3 and Cravioto et al.4 obtained detailed information about specific amino acid levels of Mexican children suffering from this severe form of protein malnutrition. Holt et al.5 refer also to investigations of patients from Dakar and Nigeria, but they give neither clinical descrip-tions nor numbers of children investigated. An abstract by Norton6 summarized data from Haiti, Mexico, Dakar and Nigeria. These reports indicate that in kwashiorkor the indis-pensable amino acids plus tyrosine and cystine tend to be reduced much below normal values. The postprandial concentrations of mdi-vidual plasma amino acids may, of course, re-fleet effects due to the absorption of amino acids from the recently ingested proteins.7 After overnight fasting, however, the effect of a meal would be eliminated and, therefore, any alteration of the fasting pattern of plasma amino acids should be principally of endoge-nous origin. In the present report, concentrations of fre