Phenylacetylglutamine is the product of uremic conditions that require an alternative pathway to the urea cycle for nitrogen waste removal.

Furthermore, phenylacetylglutamine has been found in human urine, but not in the excretory material of rats, dogs, cats, monkeys, sheep, or horses.

Throughout the metabolic process, phenylacetylglutamine is bound and conjugated by free-plasma in the kidney to remove excess nitrogen through its excretion in the urine.

[7][8] Phenylacetylglutamine isotopically labeled with 14C also serves more broadly to characterize relative rates of cellular reactions and functions as a general, non-invasive biomarker for gluconeogenesis and citric acid cycle intermediates in the liver.

[9] In CKD, phenylacetylglutamine is considered a uremic toxin which is taken up, circulated and retained in the blood after microbial fermentation of certain proteins and amino acids in the gut.