Effect of 3-hydroxyanthranilic acid on the mitochondrial respiratory system

Abstract

Studies on the metabolites of tryptophan in urine, in various neoplastic diseases, have shown an unusual excretion pattern, some of these compounds being eliminated in greater amounts than in normal human beings (Boyland & Williams, 1956a, b; Musajo, Benassi & Parpajola, 1955; Quagliariello, Tancredi, Fedele & Saccone, 1961; Tompsett, 1959; Ivanova & Ramonova-Tskhovrebova, 1960; Price & Brown, 1962). Particularly in bladder cancer there appeared to be an excretion of considerable quantities of 3-hydroxyanthranilic acid and 3-hydroxykynurenine. The significance of the accumulation in the body of these biological o-aminophenols in relation to neoplastic disease is still not clear. However, a number of o-amino- phenols are known to induce bladder cancer (Boyland, 1958), and it has been shown that 3hydroxyanthranilic acid and 3-hydroxykynurenine can induce experimental cancer of the bladder (Allen, Boyland, Dukes, Horning & Watson, 1957), and 3-hydroxyanthranilic acid some forms of leukaemia (Ehrhart & Georgii, 1959). Further, Dunning, Curtis & Mann (1950) reported that bladder cancer caused by 2-acetamidofluorene arises in practically all cases in rats when the diet is supplemented with tryptophan.