Erythrocyte mean corpuscular volume as a surrogate marker for 6-thioguanine nucleotide concentration monitoring in patients with inflammatory bowel disease treated with azathioprine or 6-mercaptopurine.

Mean corpuscular volume may correlate with erythrocyte 6-thioguanine nucleotide concentrations in patients treated with azathioprine and 6-mercaptourine. We conducted a study of 166 patients with inflammatory bowel disease treated with azathioprine or 6-mercaptopurine to determine the relationship between mean corpuscular volume and erythrocyte 6-thioguanine nucleotide concentrations, disease activity as measured by the Inflammatory Bowel Disease Questionnaire (active disease <170, remission >170), and leukopenia. Blood was submitted for mean corpuscular volume, whole blood 6-thioguanine nucleotide concentration, and leukocyte count.

Chemical modifications to study mutations that affect the ability of the general base (E268) to function in human liver mitochondrial aldehyde dehydrogenase.

The action of a general base is needed in two possible steps during the aldehyde dehydrogenase catalyzed oxidation of an aldehyde to an acid. The base is glutamate at position 268 in the cytosolic and mitochondrial class 1 and 2 enzyme. A chemical modification approach was undertaken to determine if the base were necessary in the initial attack of the nucleophilic cysteine (302) on the aldehyde as well as the attack by water on the acyl intermediate formed after the aldehyde is oxidized.