Printed in U.S.A. Pattern of Nicotinamide Nucleotides in

T WAS REPORTED earlier from these Lab-oratories that time concentration of nico-tinalmmide nucleotitles in time erytimrocytes of subjects suffering from pellagra was not different from timat in normal subjects, but the ability of erytimrocytes to synthesize time Imucieotides in vitro was significantly lower in i)ellaifls (1). It was also observed that oral adini nistration of leucine considerably depressed time ability of erythrocytes to synthesize in vitro nicotinamide nucleo-tides botim in normal subjects and in pel-lagrins but tiid not bring about any alterations ilm time total nucleotide concen-tration. Tlmese apparently paradoxical re-stIlts suggesteti that the type of nucleo-tides in time erythrocytes of pellagrins may be different from that in imormal subjects. Fractionation of time nucleotides was, therefore, carried out to examine timis pos-sibility. In addition, time nature of nucleo-tides svlmtimesized iim vitro in time erythro-cytes of imornmals and pellagrins was also examined. MATERIALS AND METHODS Fasting samples of vemous blood were ob-tailmed from 12 normal subjects and 20 pella-grms for the determination of total nicotina-mide nucleotides and fractiolms. In 10 of these pellagrins blood samples were again obtained after intramuscular administration of 300 m