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Hepatic Ornithine Metabolism In Hydrazine-Treated Rats, Van Saxton Hubbard

Theses and Dissertations

Ornithine plays an important role in mammalian intermediary metabolism. Ornithine can be (1) utilized as a component of the urea cycle, (2) decarboxylated to form putrescine, a precursor of the polyamines, spermidine and spermine, and (3) converted metabolically to arginine, proline and glutamate. In prior investigations conducted in our laboratories and others, free endogenous hepatic pools of ornithine were found to be elevated following hydrazine administration. Consequently, time-course alterations of arginase, ornithine δ-transaminase, ornithine transcarbamylase, and ornithine decarboxylase activities were investigated regarding the effect of hydrazine treatment on hepatic ornithine metabolism in the rat. As an outgrowth of these investigations, …