AJP - Gastrointestinal and Liver Physiology, Vol 269, Issue 2 313-G318, Copyright © 1995 by American Physiological Society
Effect of intestinal resection and arginine-free diet on rat physiology
Y. Wakabayashi, E. Yamada, T. Yoshida and N. Takahashi
Department of Biochemistry, Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine, Japan.
The small intestine has been presumed to release citrulline as a precursor
for the endogenous arginine synthesis. We studied the effect of intestinal
resection and arginine-free diet on rat physiology. We maintained rats with
massively resected small intestine (R rats) and those with transected
intestines (T rats) on either control or an arginine-free diet. After 4 wk,
R rats fed deficient diet [R(-)] lost weight by a mean of 46 g, whereas R
rats fed control diet [R(+)] and T rats fed control [T(+)] and deficient
diet [T(-)] gained 30-96 g. Average nitrogen balance was 150, 60, 110, and
-33 mg/day for T(+), T(-), R(+), and R(-), respectively. The concentrations
of arginine in skeletal muscle were 654, 163, 230, and 84 nmol/g,
respectively, and those in plasma were 133, 50, 103, and 54 microM,
respectively. The concentrations of citrulline in R rats were halved
compared with T rats irrespective of diet. We conclude that arginine is
synthesized in a small intestine-dependent manner in the rat.
