EXTRACTION AND CHEMICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF ANOREXIGENIC AND FAT-MOBILIZING SUBSTANCES FROM RAT URINE

Abstract

An anorexigenic and fat-mobilizing substance (FMS I), extracted from the urine of fasting rats, has been further fractionated into two materials, FMS IA and FMS IB, soluble in alkaline solution or water respectively. These two fractions have been shown to be chemically distinct by thin layer chromatography, electrophoresis, and analyses for nitrogen, carbohydrate, hexosamine, phosphorus, and "cholesterol". Further, the lipolytic activities of these extracts in vitro differ and are in the order FMS IB > FMS I > FMS IA. It has been tentatively concluded that FMS I and IA contain the 17 amino acids tryptophane, phenylalanine, leucine, arginine, isoleucine, tyrosine, valine, alanine, proline, serine, histidine, glycine, aspartic acid, glutamic acid, cystine, threonine, and lysine. FMS IB appears to contain the same amino acids with the exception of valine (which is absent). These are complex substances, the precise nature of which remains to be elucidated. It appears that the anorexigenic property of FMS I is attributable to the IA component, and the fat-mobilizing property in vivo to the IB component.