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Previous Volume 360:538-541 January 29, 2009 Number 5 Next

	Since this article has no abstract, we have provided an extract of the first 100 words of the full text and any section headings.

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To the Editor: In their review of uric acid and cardiovascular disease, Feig and colleagues (Oct. 23 issue)¹ state that "it is worth noting that humans and apes have higher uric acid levels than most other mammals, since they lack the hepatic enzyme uricase, which degrades uric acid to allantoin." That is not entirely accurate. The uricase gene underwent mutational silencing during hominoid evolution in the Miocene epoch some 8 million to 24 million years ago, an event that was postulated to confer a selective advantage through blood-pressure homeostasis mediated by uric acid in low-salt environments.² The original mutation probably . . . [Full Text of this Article]

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