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Ammonium uptake and urea production in hepatocytes from lean and obese Zucker rats

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Abstract

The metabolic differences in vitro between genetic and dietary obese rats in the uptake of ammonium and amino acids by the liver and their use for ureogenesis have been assayed using hepatocytes isolated from Lean, Obese Zucker (Genetic obese) rats and Dietary obese rats. The hepatocytes of genetic obese animals took up more ammonium and produced higher amounts of urea from ammonium and alanine than those of lean and dietary obese groups (2 and 5 times more respectively). In the lean and dietary obese groups urea synthesis accounted for almost all the nitrogen taken up as ammonium. Thus, dietary and genetic obesity show a widely different handling of nitrogen, and the genetic obese rats need to break down protein to maintain their hepatocyte function.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department de Bioquímica i Biotecnologia, Universitat Rovira i Virgili, P, Imperial Tàrraco 1, Tarragona, Spain

    M. Carmen Herrero

  2. Department de Bioquímica i Biologia Molecular, Universitat de Barcelona, Avda Diagonal 645, Barcelona, Spain

    Xavier Remesar

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  1. M. Carmen Herrero
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  2. Xavier Remesar
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Herrero, M.C., Remesar, X. Ammonium uptake and urea production in hepatocytes from lean and obese Zucker rats. Mol Cell Biochem 200, 163–167 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1007003519678

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