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 Tanphaichitr, V. Articles by Broquist, H. P. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Tanphaichitr, V. Articles by Broquist, H. P.

Lysine Deficiency in the Rat: Concomitant Impairment in Carnitine Biosynthesis¹

Division of Nutrition, Department of Biochemistry, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Nashville, Tennessee 37232

In two experiments male weanling rats were fed 20% wheat gluten diets for 90 days; such diets contained minimal lysine, 0.37%, and < 0.1 µg carnitine per gram. Under these nutritional conditions poor growth, anemia, and hypoproteinemia developed in contrast to the well-being of control rats receiving adequate dietary lysine. Rats fed the unsupplemented wheat gluten diets were found in general to have about a one-third lower level of carnitine per gram of skeletal muscle and heart muscle than the control group when examined at approximately monthly intervals over the test period. The carnitine level of the liver, however, was significantly higher in the unsupplemented vs. the lysine-supplemented groups. This latter finding may reflect the need for increased hepatic synthesis of carnitine under the stringent nutritional conditions employed. The data illustrate that the carnitine content of the heart and muscle of the rat depends on the level of lysine in the diet and support isotopic studies from our laboratory that lysine is a precursor of carnitine in the rat.

KEY WORDS: • lysine • carnitine • wheat gluten • growth • anemia • hypoproteinemia

¹ This work was supported by Health Science Advancement Award NIH 5 S04 R R 06067 and by Grant AM 14338 from the National Institute of Arthritis and Metabolic Diseases of the National Institutes of Health, United States Public Health Service.

Manuscript received 31 May 1972.