SHORT CHAIN DIOL METABOLISM IN HUMAN-DISEASE STATES

Recent clinical studies have shown the presence of two short chain diols, meso-2,3-butanediol and d/l-2,3-butanediol, and in most cases 1,2-propanediol in either serum or urine collected from humans in several apparently unrelated disease states: congenital propionic and methyl-malonic acidemia, premature infants, and alcoholics both in the presence and absence of ethanol. In addition 1,2-propanediol has been shown in patients during prolonged starvation, and in patients with diabetic ketoacidosis. No common defect is known to exist in these metabolic states. Understanding how these compounds are produced in clinically well-defined diseases such as methyl malonic and propionic aciduria, however, may help explain how and why these compounds are produced in alcoholics. © 1990.