title: Decreased serum essential and aromatic amino acids in patients with chronic pancreatitis.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To investigate the influence of chronic pancreatitis (CP) on serum concentrations of amino acids.
  
  
  METHODS
  Thirty-five male patients with alcoholic CP and 21 healthy male subjects were examined. Serum concentrations of amino acids were assayed by ion-pair high-performance liquid chromatography with mass detection.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Serum glutamate concentration was increased in CP patients as compared to controls. In contrast, serum concentrations of glutamine, histidine, tyrosine, proline, tryptophan and threonine were significantly decreased in CP patients. A trend towards decreasing concentrations of serum lysine, alanine, methionine and valine as well as for total serum amino acids was observed. The sum of aromatic and the sum of essential amino acid concentrations were significantly lower in CP patients than in controls.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  CP leads to decreased serum concentrations of several amino acids, such as essential and aromatic serum amino acids, most likely due to decreased exocrine function.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry, Medical University of Gdansk, ul. Debinki 1, 80-211 Gdansk, Poland.
authors.forename: Krystian
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Adrych
authors.forename: Marian
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Smoczynski
authors.forename: Magdalena
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Stojek
authors.forename: Tomasz
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Sledzinski
authors.forename: Ewa
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Slominska
authors.forename: Elzbieta
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Goyke
authors.forename: Ryszard-Tomasz
authors.initials: RT
authors.lastname: Smolenski
authors.forename: Julian
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Swierczynski
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D024322:Amino Acids, Aromatic / Q000097:blood*; D000601:Amino Acids, Essential / Q000097:blood*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D050500:Pancreatitis, Chronic / Q000097:blood*
chemical_list: D024322:Amino Acids, Aromatic; D000601:Amino Acids, Essential