The Effect of Salicylates and Adrenocorticotropic Hormone Upon the Miscible Pool of Uric Acid in Gout 1

In a previous report (1) were described the re-sults of experiments in which isotopic uric acid was injected intravenously into normal and gouty human male subjects. The purpose was to as-certain the magnitude of the "miscible pool, " that quantity of uric acid present in the body capable of prompt mixing with the injected material, and the rate of its turnover. The results indicated that there are some 1200 mg. of miscible uric acid normally present, a finding in accord with that of Geren and associates (2), that between 50 and 75 % of this is each day replaced by newly formed uric acid and that this latter quantity exceeds the quantity excreted daily in the urine, suggesting the occurrence of limited catabolism of uric acid in man. In the gouty subjects studied, the magnitude of this miscible pool ex-ceeded the normal levels by as much as 15 fold. Indeed, so large was the quantity of promptly miscible uric acid as to indicate that at least a portion of this material must reside in the solid phase rather than in solution in body fluids. In the present study 2 we have extended our ob-servations on the amount and distribution of mis-cible uric acid in the gouty patient and have in-vestigated the effects upon these quantities of some of the therapeutic agents commonly employed in this disease. The effect of ACTH 3 on the normal subject has also been studied. MATERIALS AND METHODS The preparation of isotopic uric acid labeled in the one and three positions with N', the isolation of uric acid 1This study was aided in part by grants from the