Adipic acid, occurrence

Homoserine also has been detected in filtrates of liver preparations incubated with methionine. Cantoni provisionally identified homoserine as a product of the acid hydrolysis of active methionine (S-adeno-sylmethionine). Beyond homoserine, the postulated reactions 2 and 3 are still more speculative. It might be presumed that homoserine is oxidized to aspartic acid, in analogy to the observations on the catabolism of lysine, in which the analogous a-amino adipic acid is an intermediate. If aspartic acid is formed, the subsequent reaction sequence is readily apparent. Evidence favorable to the proposed reaction pathway is the finding of Marshall and Friedberg, of the occurrence of a small amount of fumaric acid, labeled in the methine carbons, from the livers of mice injected with DL-methionine-2-C. ... 

The predominant gaseous products of the decomposition [1108] of copper maleate at 443—613 K and copper fumarate at 443—653 K were C02 and ethylene. The very rapid temperature rise resulting from laser heating [1108] is thought to result in simultaneous decarboxylation to form acetylene via the intermediate —CH=CH—. Preliminary isothermal measurements [487] for both these solid reactants (and including also copper malonate) found the occurrence of an initial acceleratory process, ascribed to a nucleation and growth reaction. Thereafter, there was a discontinuous diminution in rate (a 0.4), ascribed to the deposition of carbon at the active surfaces of growing copper nuclei. Bassi and Kalsi [1282] report that the isothermal decomposition of copper(II) adipate at 483—503 K obeyed the Prout—Tompkins equation [eqn. (9)] with E = 191 kJ mole-1. Studies of the isothermal decompositions of the copper(II) salts of benzoic, salicylic and malonic acids are also cited in this article. 

Witten et al. (1973) identified adipic and 3-methyladipic acids and also reported the presence in urine, using GC-MS, of aconitic and isocitric acids in addition to citrate. Mamer et al, (1971) reported the occurrence of several hydroxyaliphatic acids in addition to those already identified by other workers, and Mamer and Tjoa have identified 2-ethylhydracrylic acid in urine derived from isoleucine metabolism (Mamer and Tjoa, 1974). Urine from healthy children and adults may contain low amounts of aliphatic dicarboxylic acids of chain length C4-C8 (Lawson et ai, 1976). Pettersen and Stokke (1973) reported a series of 3-methyl-branched C4-C8 dicarboxylic acids in urine from normal subjects, and Lindstedt and co-workers have identified other dicarboxylic acids with cyclopropane rings and acetylenic bonds as well as a series of cis and trans mono-unsaturated aliphatic dicarboxylic acids (Lindstedt et al., 1974,1976 Lindstedt and Steen, 1975). 

This chapter describes the case reports of these enzyme deficiencies and the underlying biochemistry of the disorders and their associations. It is not the intention to discuss keto acidosis associated with other diseases, for example juvenile diabetes, or ketogenesis and its control which are reviewed elsewhere (Wildenhoff, 1975, 1977 McGarry and Foster, 1976 Halperin, 1977). In addition to the common occurrence of 3-hydroxybutyrate and acetoacetate in body fluids of patients with keto acidosis, secondary organic acids have been observed in urine, including adipic and suberic acids (Pettersen et aL, 1972), 3-hydroxyisovaleric acid (Landaas, 1974), 3-hydroxyisobutyric acid and 2-methyl-3-hydroxybutyric acid (Landaas, 1975). The dicarboxylic acids occur as a result of initial co-oxidation of accumulating long-chain fatty acids followed by )8-oxidation (Pettersen, 1972), and metabolites of the branched-chain amino acids occur because of inhibition of their metabolic pathways by 3-hydroxybutyrate and acetoacetate (Landaas and Jakobs, 1977). 

Pettersen, J.E., Jellum, E. and Eldjarn, L. (1972), The occurrence of adipic and suberic acid in urine from ketotic patients. Clin. Chim. Acta, 38,17. 

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