Home

"Mauve Factor" was once mistaken for kryptopyrrole but is the hydroxylactam of hemopyrrole, hydroxyhemopyrrolin-2-one (HPL). Treatment with nutrients-particularly vitamin B6 and zinc-reduces urinary excretion of HPL and improves diverse neurobehavioral symptoms in subjects with elevated urinary HPL. Heightened HPL excretion classically associates with emotional stress, which in turn is known to associate with oxidative stress. For this review, markers for nutritional status and for oxidative stress were examined in relationship to urinary HPL. In cohorts with mixed diagnoses, 24-hour urinary HPL correlated negatively with vitamin B6 activity and zinc concentration in red cells (P<.0001). Above-normal HPL excretion corresponded to subnormal vitamin B6 activity and subnormal zinc with remarkable consistency. HPL correlated inversely with plasma GSH and red-cell catalase, and correlated directly with plasma nitric oxide (P<.0001). Thus, besides implying proportionate needs for vitamin B6 and zinc, HPL is a promising biomarker for oxidative stress. HPL is known to cause non-erythroid heme depression, which lowers zinc, increases nitric oxide, and increases oxidative stress. Administration of prednisone reportedly provoked HPL excretion in animals. Since adrenocorticoid (and catecholamine) stress hormones mediate intestinal permeability, urinary HPL was examined in relationship to urinary indicans, presumptive marker for intestinal permeability. Urinary HPL associated with higher levels of indicans (P<.0001). Antibiotics reportedly reduce HPL in urine, suggesting an enterobic role in production. Potentially, gut is reservoir for HPL or its precursor, and stress-related changes in intestinal permeability mediate systemic and urinary concentrations.

CONCLUSION

At the very least, this review should clarify the identity and history of Mauve (HPL). Hopefully, it will strengthen commitment to careful handling and refined laboratory approaches to urinary assay of HPL, including normalization to specific gravity or creatinine. And for the first time, herein were presented organized data that examined-and confirmed-urinary HPL as a yardstick for functional B6 and zinc deficiency. The findings are congruous with clinical observations over the decades and should stimulate independent corroboration and further research.

In its search for clinically relevant biomarkers for oxidative stress, modern medicine would do well to consider urinary Mauve as a means to quantify oxidative stress and to guide the use of specific antioxidant therapies. Besides practical potential, Mauve provides an exquisite conceptual model for the interplay of oxidative stress, emotional stress, nutrients, and gut as they pertain to disease of brain and body.