QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced] Author: Keyword(s): Year:  Vol:  Page:

This Article Full Text (PDF) Purchase Article View Shopping Cart Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Whanger, P. D. Articles by Muth, O. H. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Whanger, P. D. Articles by Muth, O. H.

Free Plasma Amino Acids in Selenium-deficient Lambs and Rats¹

Oregon Agricultural Experiment Station, Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon 97331

The plasma amino acid score (PAA score) was calculated from the free plasma amino acid levels in fed and fasted selenium-deficient and selenium-supplemented lambs at 1–2, 7, 14, 28 and 42 days of age and of rats at 120 days of age. No significant difference either in the total or the total nonessential PAA score between supplemented and deficient lambs was observed at 1–2, 7 and 14 days, but both scores were significantly higher for the supplemented lambs at 28 and 42 days of age. No significant difference in the total essential PAA score between supplemented and deficient lambs was detected at any age. Of the essential amino acids, only the PAA scores for methionine, threonine and lysine; and of the nonessential amino acids the scores for serine, proline, glutamate, aspartate, alanine, citrulline, glycine, ornithine, and two of the ninhydrin-positive compounds (taurine and -amino butyrate) were significantly different at one or more of the ages between supplemented and deficient lambs. In contrast to the lambs, the PAA scores for all compounds, except aspartate, glutamate, proline and citrulline, were higher for deficient rats; however, only the scores for glycine, alanine, tyrosine and lysine were significantly higher.

KEY WORDS: • Selenium deficiency • plasma amino acids

¹ Published with the approval of the director of Oregon State Agricultural Experiment Station as Technical Paper no. 2662. Supported in part by Public Health Service Research Grant no. NS 07413 from the National Institute of Neurological Diseases and Stroke and AM 13870 from the National Institute of Arthritis and Metabolic Diseases.

² Department of Agricultural Chemistry.

³ Undergraduate Research Participant, sponsored by the National Science Foundation during the summer of 1969. Present address: University of Oregon Medical School, 3181 S.W. Sam Jackson Road, Portland, Oregon 97201.

⁴ Department of Veterinary Medicine.

Manuscript received 16 July 1971.