Research Article

Altered Nitrogen Balance and Decreased Urea Excretion in Male Rats Fed Cafeteria Diet Are Related to Arginine Availability

Table 4

Plasma amino acid concentrations of male rats fed a cafeteria diet for one month compared with controls fed a standard rat chow diet.

Amino acidControl
( M)
Cafeteria diet-fed
( M)

Alanine NS
Aspartate* NS
Asparagine* NS
Asp + Asn NS
Glutamate* NS
Glutamine* 0.005
Glu + Gln NS
Proline NS
Hydroxyproline NS
Threonine 0.010
Serine 0.003
Glycine 0.002
Leucine* NS
Isoleucine* NS
Valine* NS
branched chain NS
Phenylalanine NS
Tyrosine NS
Tryptophan NS
Methionine NS
Cysteine NS
Lysine NS
Histidine NS
Ornithine* 0.045
Citrulline* NS
Arginine* 0.006
urea cycle NS
total (mM) NS

The values are the mean ± SEM for 6 different animals. Statistical significance of the differences between the two groups was determined with Student’s t-test. NS: . Asterisks “*” indicate the amino acids incorporated in the sums marked in bold below them.