Increased urinary excretion of albumin, light chains, and beta2-microglobulin after intravenous arginine administration in normal man

Abstract

Infusion of 60 g of arginine in six healthy men over a 40-50 min period caused a 16-fold increase in the excretion-rate of albumin from 8-6 to 142-4 mug/min. After injection of 3, 6, 9, and 12 g of arginine the mean albumin-excretion rate of another six normal subjects rose from 5-8 mug/min to 9-4, 13-2, 21-6, and 33-9 mug/min, respectively. Excretion of light chains of immunoglobulin increased from 5-5 mug/min to 18-0, 30-0, 40-5; and 52-0 mug/min, respectively, and the excretion rate of beta2-microglobulin increased from 0-092 mug/min to 2-97, 9-23, 16-39, and 25-71 mug/min. Thus a clear dose response pattern was found. The results strongly suggest that the mechanism behind the arginine-induced protein excretion is an inhibition of tubular reabsorption.