Amino-Acid Patterns of Urine and Blood Plasma in a Cystinuric Labrador Dog

Abstract

IT was shown by Lassaigne more than 130 years ago that cystine calculi may occur in the urinary tract of dogs. Canine cystinuria has since been recognized widely. Thus, more recently, 3 per cent of urinary calculi removed surgically from dogs in Holland and in Denmark¹ were composed of cystine, and 18 per cent in England², where White found them to be the commonest type (55 per cent of cases) causing urethral impaction. Canine cystinuria, with or without calculus formation, is said to be common also in France. Cystine calculi have been recorded from many breeds of dogs^2–4, but not hitherto from the Labrador. Furthermore, no study of the amino-acid patterns of the urine and plasma has previously been described; and hence it was not known if canine cystinuria is etiologically analogous with human cystinuria. If it were so, the usefulness of the cystinuric dog as a model for investigation of the human condition would be enhanced.