A 21-year-old female patient suffering from fulminant hepatic failure was treated with extracorporeal normothermic baboon's liver perfusion for 60 hours. The amino acids (AA) uptake of the extracorporeal organ and the ratio of plasma and muscle AA at the end of the perfusion were measured. The AA uptake of the extracorporeal liver was 414 millimoles per 60 hours and even greater during hemodialysis treatment. In spite of this AA uptake, the plasma AA pattern was not normalized. At the end of the perfusion, the free AA concentration in muscle tissue was 86.25 millimoles per liter of intracellular water, an increase of 62% compared to healthy volunteers. In the patient, the ratio of glutamine to glutamine in muscle tissue was 20 to 1 compared to 5 to 1 in normals. It is concluded that (1) the extracorporeal baboon liver cannot extract the quantities of AA released by endogenous protein catabolism in hepatic failure, and (2) the muscular ammonia detoxification system gets overloaded as indicated by the increase ratio of glutamine to glutamate.

Adult↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Effects of nutrition on plasma, liver and muscle amino acids in scalded rats.

This study set out to investigate the effect of three different parenterally administered diets on the free amino acid (AA) levels in the plasma, muscle, and liver of scalded rats. Diet I consisted of AA (1.4 g/100 g weight) and a high glucose dose (6 g/100 g weight), diet II consisted of AA and a low glucose dose (1.4 g/100 g weight) and in diet III only a low glucose dose was infused. Parenteral nutrition was started on the 3rd day posttraumatically. Sampling was performed on the 7th day posttraumatically. Nitrogen balances were significantly different in all three groups, being lowest in group III. Scalded rats fed isonitrogenously, but with different amounts of glucose showed only minor changes in AA concentrations. However scalded rats fed with a nitrogen-free diet exhibited significantly reduced total muscle and liver AA levels. These decreased AA levels were due to a drop of glycine in the muscle tissue (74%) and liver (49%). Contrary to the clinical catabolic situation in scalded and starved rats, it was not intracellular glutamine but glycine which was considerably influenced by catabolism and starvation.

Amino Acids↗