Influence of Arginine or Ornithine upon Ethanol Effects on Rat Liver Metabolism

Abstract

Young Wistar male rats (120-130 g) were fasted overnight and given either 3 g ethanol/kg body weight, 1.5 g/kg arginine, 1.14 g/kg ornithine, or the association of ethanol and arginine, or ethanol and ornithine by the i.p. method. The animals were killed at 0 (controls), 20, 40, and 60 min after the injection. The time course of 13 compounds was followed in their liver. After arginine or ornithine administration, glutamate, aspartate, alanine, malate, citrate, and urea increased, while the ketone bodies, β-hydroxybutyrate, and acetoacetate decreased. The concentrations of a-oxoglutarate, pyruvate, and oxaloacetate did not change. The changes produced by ethanol were those presented in previous papers, but there were interactions when ethanol was given together with arginine or ornithine: they chiefly concerned alanine, citrate, and acetoacetate in the ornithine experiment, aspartate, glutamate, glutamine, and urea in the arginine one. Discussion of the results shows that arginine or ornithine promote a strong influx of metabolites from glutamate to malate, aspartate, and alanine. This probably decreases citrate synthesis from ethanol and overcomes ethanol effects at the a-oxoglutarate level. Ornithine was less efficient than arginine. Perhaps this is related to differences in urea and ammonia concentration changes in the two experiments.