For more than 150 years, it has remained an unsolved mystery as to why urine in the human body is yellow.
But a new study was published this week in the journal natureHe thinks he cracked the code.
Researchers from the University of Maryland and the National Institutes of Health in the United States say they have identified bilirubin as the reason behind what gives urine its color.
Urine consists of a mixture of water, electrolytes, and wastes that are filtered by the kidneys.
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So far unexplained
Scientists identified urobilin as the cause of yellow pigmentation in urine in 1868, but the cause of the color was until recently a mystery to scientists.
“It is remarkable that an everyday biological phenomenon has remained unexplained for so long, and our team is thrilled to be able to explain it,” said Brantley Hall, an assistant professor in the Department of Cell Biology and Molecular Genetics at the University of Maryland. Maryland Today.
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This process occurs when red blood cells reach the end of their life cycle after six months and break down into the orange pigment bilirubin. Normally, the pigment begins to leak into the intestine, where it is excreted or partially reabsorbed.
The study showed that microorganisms in the intestine can convert bilirubin into various other molecules when they reach the intestine.
– Intestinal microbes encode the enzyme bilirubin reductase, which converts bilirubin into a colorless byproduct called urobilinogen. Urobilinogen is then automatically broken down into a molecule called urobilin, which is responsible for the yellow color we're all familiar with, Hall explains.
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– On the shoulders of giants
The discovery of why urine, which plays a crucial role for doctors in diagnosing a wide range of diseases and disorders in the human body, turns yellow, has been hailed as a “brilliant” breakthrough that has solved an important piece of the “puzzle”. To understand more about the human body.
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-We certainly stand on the shoulders of giants. If some of these older scientists had the technology we have today, they probably would have found it, Hall says.
Hall, who is the lead author of the study, explains that this discovery could lead to other medical breakthroughs that could help people fight diseases such as inflammatory bowel disease and jaundice, a condition that causes a yellow tinge to the skin and mucous membranes and jaundice. The whites of the eyes.
The researcher adds that one of the most important results we reached in our studies is that this gene was often absent in newborns.
The plan now is to move forward with studies in humans, especially in babies born prematurely who have high rates of jaundice.
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