A B S T R A C r To determine the quantitative relationship of urinary hydroxyproline peptide excretion to collagen breakdown, known quantities of radioactive hydroxyproline peptides were administered to unlabeled animals and excertion of radioactivity in respiratory carbon dioxide, urine, and feces was measured. The major routes of excretion of collagen peptide metabolites were respiratory carbon dioxide (75%) and urine, as hydroxyproline-containing peptides (25%).Since the predominant urine hydroxyproline peptide linkage is prolyl-hydroxyproline, L-prOlyl-L-hydroxyproline-3H was administered to unlabeled animals. Greater than 80% of the administered dipeptide was excreted in urine, suggesting that this peptide linkage is not hydrolyzed to a significant extent in vivo.These data suggest that urinary hydroxyproline excretion is a "fairly" sensitive indicator of collagen breakdown and can be used at the clinical level to quantitate changes in collagen breakdown. creted in urine, about 97% in the form of peptides and 3% as the free imino acid (3). The dietary intake of gelatin has resulted in a marked increase of urinary excretion of bound hydroxyproline (3,4). The amino acid composition of urinary hydroxyproline peptides before (5, 6) and after (6) gelatin feeding in normal subjects suggests that urinary hydroxyproline peptides are endproducts of collagen degradation. The predominant urinary hydroxyproline peptides, prolyl-hydroxyproline and glycyl-prolyl-hydroxyproline, contain amino acid sequences known to occur frequently in the collagen molecule (7). To further implicate collagen breakdown as the source of urinary hydroxyproline peptides are the observations that excretion increases or decreases in a number of clinical conditions where an increase or decrease in collagen breakdown would be expected (8)(9)(10)(11).
INTRODUCTIONUrinary hydroxyproline peptide excretion would be most useful in the analysis of diseases of connective tissues at the clinical level if it represents a quantitatively significant and fairly constant fraction of the hydroxyproline released by collagen degradation. Since urinary hydroxyproline excretion is almost entirely in the form of peptides, its quantitative importance would appear to depend on what proportion of the peptides released by the degradation of collagen is excreted in urine, what proportion is further degraded to carbon dioxide, and whether this is a fairly constant relationship.The present investigation approaches the question of the quantitative significance of urinary hydroxyproline peptide excretion by techniques similar to those used in the study of plasma proteins (12, 13). Known quantities of radioactive hydroxyproline peptides were administered to unlabeled animals and the distribution of excretion in urine, respiratory carbon dioxide, and feces was measured. This approach permits an estimation of the quantitative significance of each of these pathways from the distribution of excretion of radioactivity.
The Journal of Clinical Investigation Volume 48 1969 1These s...