Giuseppe Bartholini, Isami Kuruma, Alfred Pletscher
Apr 23, 1971
Citations
0
Influential Citations
63
Citations
Journal
Nature
Abstract
3-METHOXY-4-hydroxyphenylalanine (3-O-methyldopa) is a major metabolite of L-3,4-dihydroxyphenylalanine (L-dopa) in animals and man1–4 and when labelled it easily penetrates from the blood into other tissues, for example the brain and heart, where it has a biological half life of 12–13 h, which is considerably longer than that of L-dopa, which is about 30 min. The bulk of the urinary radioactivity excreted within 24 h consists of homovanillic acid (3-methoxy-4-hydroxyphenyl-acetic acid) and 3-methoxy-4-hydroxyphenyllactic acid5.