Marked increase in the urinary level of N-nitrosothioproline after ingestion of cod with vegetables.

When five volunteers were given food containing cod and vegetables (a traditional Japanese food, called tara-chiri), their urinary excretion of N-nitrosothioproline increased from 7.9 +/- 4.2 (SD) micrograms/day to 110 +/- 64.5 micrograms/day. This increase was accounted for by in vivo nitrosation of of thioproline by nitrite formed from nitrate in the vegetables. This finding was confirmed by results on a volunteer who ate boiled cod and Japanese radish (daikon) (a simple version of the food containing cod and vegetables). Boiled cod was found to contain 300-500 micrograms/100 g of thioproline, and the level nearly doubled when the cod was boiled with Japanese radish. This increase occurred during the cooking of cod with Japanese radish by the reaction of formaldehyde in the cod with cysteine in the Japanese radish. The nitrosation of thioproline was estimated to be 1000-fold that of proline in the human body. Thus thioproline is a very sensitive probe of in vivo nitrosation. Thioproline formation either in vivo or in vitro may have the following two roles in reducing tumorigenesis in humans: (a) detoxication of formaldehyde, which is genotoxic; and (b) blocking the formation of carcinogenic N-nitroso compounds by trapping nitrite and then being excreted in the urine.