Dipeptide absorption in cystinuria.

Absorption of a dipeptide and its constituent amino-acids has been studied by a perfusion technique in a patient with cystinuria and in a normal subject. Though the cystinuric patient was unable to absorb the dibasic amino-acid lysine in its free form, the dipeptide glycyl-L-lysine was well absorbed. Both free lysine and glycyl-L-lysine were well absorbed in the normal subject.This finding suggests that the reason that clinical malnutrition does not occur in cystinuria, despite defective intestinal absorption and heavy renal loss of dibasic amino-acids and cystine, is that these amino-acids can be absorbed in the form of oligopeptides.