Decreased plasma alanine and isoleucine in Huntington's disease.

Amino acid concentrations in plasma of patients with Huntington's disease (HD) were determined in 16 patients and 21 age- and sex-matched healthy controls. Alanine and isoleucine were significantly decreased in HD plasma whereas arginine, histidine, leucine, lysine, ornithine, proline, serine, threonine, tyrosine, and valine showed no significant changes. Our findings confirm the decreases of alanine and isoleucine that were described in plasma and cerebrospinal fluid by other investigators. A possible defect in cellular uptake or metabolism of neutral amino acids seems to be a consistent feature of HD.