Abstract
GROWING rats1, guinea-pigs2, rabbits3 and possibly human beings4 require dietary arginine for optimum nitrogen retention and normal growth. Adult men5, dogs6 and rats1 do not require dietary arginine for nitrogen equilibrium and it is assumed that adults of other species also meet all of their arginine needs from synthesis within tissues. Kennan and Cohen7 have suggested, however, that the Krebs–Henseleit urea cycle, in which arginine is an intermediate, operates at near maximum capacity for ammonia (that is NH3+NH4+) detoxification in immature rats. Sperm, which contain a large concentration of arginine, decrease in numbers and motility when collected from mature men or rats fed arginine-deficient diets8,9. Free orotic acid found normally in milk10 cannot be readily detected in normal tissues11. It is barely detectable in normal urine12 unless orotate is fed (our unpublished results). We have observed profound orotic aciduria in arginine-deficient growing rats13 and in ammonia-intoxicated rats (unpublished results). The accumulated evidence suggested that endogenous synthesis provides limited reserves of arginine for detoxifying ammonia in mature animals and that important metabolic consequences might ensue if their diet lacked arginine. We report here experiments with rats which clearly show that marked increases in orotate and urea excretion are sensitive indicators of dietary arginine deficiency, regardless of age and body size. The data also show that the usual methods of determining amino acid needs for adult mammals fail to reveal biochemical changes caused by diets lacking available arginine.
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MILNER, J., VISEK, W. Orotic Aciduria and Arginine Deficiency. Nature 245, 211–213 (1973). https://doi.org/10.1038/245211a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/245211a0
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