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Hepatic Transaminase in Protein-Restricted Rats: Development of a Controlled Model^1,2,3,

Department of Food Science, Cook College, Rutgers-The State University, New Brunswick, New Jersey 08903

A marginal protein malnutrition model which makes allowances for the increasing nutritional requirements of the growing rat and the effects of dietary manipulation on diurnal rhythms, while still rigidly controlling the level of protein restriction, is reported. A predetermined, constantly increasing intake of four purified diets, providing approximately 40 to 160% of the National Research Council protein requirement for rats was fed to rats receiving a nitrogen-free energy source ad libitum. This standardization reduced within-group variation and allowed precise growth reproducibility. Biochemical parameters were measured at evenly spaced intervals throughout the day to remove diurnal differences from between-group comparisons. Growth, nitrogen balance, and 24-hour means of liver weight, DNA, RNA, protein, and glutamate-oxaloacetate and glutamate-pyruvate transaminases reflected protein intake. However, when growth was depressed 10, 30, or 60%, liver GPT/DNA was depressed 40, 49, or 67%, respectively. Hepatic GPT appears to be a sensitive and accurate indicator of marginal protein malnutrition.

KEY WORDS: • protein malnutrition • GPT • GOT

¹ Supported in part by Northeast Regional Research Project NE-73.

² Presented at the 58th Annual Meeting of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology, Atlantic City, New Jersey, April 12, 1974. Federation Proceedings 33, 712 (1974).

³ Reprint requests should be addressed to Mahion A. Burnette, III at Grocery Manufacturers of America, Inc., 1425 K Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20005.

Manuscript received 7 June 1976.