Concluding Remarks

Abstract

First I would like to point out this was a multidisciplinary meeting, in which both clinicians and basic scientists participated. An improved understanding of the urea cycle was the goal of this symposium. In physiological conditions the urea cycle enables the organism to get rid of ammonia. Malfunction leads to accumulation of ammonia, ammonia containing compounds and other metabolites of the urea cycle. The urea cycle is not an isolated metabolic pathway in the organism; it connects to other pathways, such as those that allow urea metabolism, such as the transformation of ornithine in various metabolites, like proline, and of arginine in monoguanidines. For this last pathway, one remaining question is if guanidinosuccinic acid is a metabolite of urea or of arginine.