MODELS AND THEORY FOR UREA METABOLISM.
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: CHARLWOOD PA
PROVIDER: S-EPMC1214353 | biostudies-other | 1965 May
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-other
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Project description:ra05-09_urea - urea - What are the transcriptomic plant responses to urea nitrogen supply ? - Columbia Arabidopsis ecotype were grown hydroponically on 0.5 mM NH4NO3 as sole nitrogen source during 35 days under short days. Plants were then placed on 3 nutrient solutions supplemented, either with 1 mM NH4NO3, or with 0.5 mM NH4NO3 + 0.5 mM Urea, or with 1 mM Urea. Root and shoot samples were harvested separately 7 days after these different nitrogen treatments Keywords: treated vs untreated comparison
2007-10-16 | GSE9258 | GEO
Project description:The urea cycle generates arginine that is one of the major precursors for creatine biosynthesis. Here we evaluate levels of creatine and guanidinoacetate (the precursor in the synthesis of creatine) in plasma samples (ns = 207) of patients (np = 73) with different types of urea cycle disorders (ornithine transcarbamylase deficiency (ns = 22; np = 7), citrullinemia type 1 (ns = 60; np = 22), argininosuccinic aciduria (ns = 81; np = 31), arginase deficiency (ns = 44; np = 13)). The concentration of plasma guanidinoacetate positively correlated (p < 0.001, R2 = 0.64) with levels of arginine, but not with glycine in all patients with urea cycle defects, rising to levels above normal in most samples (34 out of 44) of patients with arginase deficiency. In contrast to patients with guanidinoacetate methyltransferase deficiency (a disorder of creatine synthesis characterized by elevated guanidinoacetate concentrations), creatine levels were normal (32 out of 44) or above normal (12 out of 44) in samples from patients with arginase deficiency. Creatine levels correlated significantly, but poorly (p < 0.01, R2 = 0.1) with guanidinoacetate levels and, despite being overall in the normal range in patients with all other urea cycle disorders, were occasionally below normal in some patients with argininosuccinic acid synthase and lyase deficiency. Creatine levels positively correlated with levels of methionine (p < 0.001, R2 = 0.16), the donor of the methyl group for creatine synthesis. The direct correlation of arginine levels with guanidinoacetate in patients with urea cycle disorders explains the increased concentration of guanidino compounds in arginase deficiency. Low creatine levels in some patients with other urea cycle defects might be explained by low protein intake (creatine is naturally present in meat) and relative or absolute intracellular arginine deficiency.
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Project description:Milk urea concentration is an indicator for dietary nitrogen (N)-supply and urinary N-excretion. Dairy cows with high (HMU) compared to low milk urea (LMU) concentration have greater plasma urea, creatinine and uric acid concentrations, but if the liver metabolism accounts for these differences is unknown. Eighteen HMU and 18 LMU cows were fed a diet with a low (LP) or normal (NP) crude protein concentration. A N balance study was performed and a 13C-urea bolus was administered to measure urea pool size. Liver samples were analyzed by 2D-gel-based proteomics and RT-qPCR. Although HMU cows had a greater urea pool, plasma urea, uric acid, and hippuric acid concentrations, these differences were not associated with altered expressions of genes related to urea cycling or N-metabolism. Instead, HMU cows had higher oxidative stress levels. Conclusively, other factors than hepatic urea metabolism account for milk urea concentrations. Despite higher plasma urea concentrations and argininosuccinate synthase 1 protein expression on the LP diet, urea cycle mRNA expressions were not affected, indicating that its activity is not controlled at transcriptional level. Feeding the LP diet resulted in increased expressions of enzymes catabolizing fatty acids, but the reason remains to be investigated in future studies.
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Project description:BackgroundMathematical models describing growth kinetics are very important for predicting many biological phenomena such as tumor volume, speed of disease progression, and determination of an optimal radiation and/or chemotherapy schedule. Growth models such as logistic, Gompertz, Richards, and Weibull have been extensively studied and applied to a wide range of medical and biological studies. We introduce a class of three and four parameter models called "hyperbolastic models" for accurately predicting and analyzing self-limited growth behavior that occurs e.g. in tumors. To illustrate the application and utility of these models and to gain a more complete understanding of them, we apply them to two sets of data considered in previously published literature.ResultsThe results indicate that volumetric tumor growth follows the principle of hyperbolastic growth model type III, and in both applications at least one of the newly proposed models provides a better fit to the data than the classical models used for comparison.ConclusionWe have developed a new family of growth models that predict the volumetric growth behavior of multicellular tumor spheroids with a high degree of accuracy. We strongly believe that the family of hyperbolastic models can be a valuable predictive tool in many areas of biomedical and epidemiological research such as cancer or stem cell growth and infectious disease outbreaks.
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Project description:Different plant defense theories have provided important theoretical guidance in explaining patterns in plant specialized metabolism, but their critical predictions remain to be tested. Here, we systematically explored the metabolomes of Nicotiana attenuata, from single plants to populations, as well as of closely related species, using unbiased tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS) analyses and processed the abundances of compound spectrum-based MS features within an information theory framework to test critical predictions of optimal defense (OD) and moving target (MT) theories. Information components of plant metabolomes were consistent with the OD theory but contradicted the main prediction of the MT theory for herbivory-induced dynamics of metabolome compositions. From micro- to macroevolutionary scales, jasmonate signaling was confirmed as the master determinant of OD, while ethylene signaling provided fine-tuning for herbivore-specific responses annotated via MS/MS molecular networks.
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Project description:1. The half-life of [(15)N]urea was found to be significantly longer than that of [(14)C]urea injected at the same time, the differences being due to endogenous catabolism of urea, which is accompanied by little or no reutilization of (14)C but is approx. 20% for (15)N. [(15)N]Urea therefore appears to be valueless as an indicator of nitrogen metabolism unless the extents of endogenous catabolism of urea and of fractional reutilization of (15)N can be separately estimated. 2. Though measurements of the radioactivity of expired (14)CO(2) confirmed the existence of considerable urea catabolism these could not be used for quantitative assessments. 3. Alternative graphical methods based on [(14)C]urea specific activities in plasma and urine samples were used to calculate the fraction of urea production that is excreted. Values by the two methods were in good agreement and showed that some animals excrete less than half the urea that they produce. 4. Specific activity differences between simultaneous samples of urinary and plasma urea reflect the presence of a pool of urea in the kidney that is not in equilibrium with the body urea pool. Calculations indicate the presence of urea in the kidney that in some cases may represent as much as 15% of the body pool, and in two animals in which post-mortem renal analyses were performed the masses of urea found agreed closely with the calculated values. 5. A model for urea metabolism is proposed that includes this pool in the excretory pathway. The related theory is shown to be adequate to explain the shape of the specific activity curves of urinary urea from the time of injection and the constant delay of the specific activity of urinary urea, relative to that of plasma urea, that is observed after a short preliminary equilibration period. 6. The body urea pool was calculated from the activity retained at 1.5hr. by excluding renal activity and the corrected specific activity of plasma urea at the same time. The urea pool was calculated to be distributed at the plasma concentration in a substantially smaller water volume than that found by injecting tritiated water in five animals. Reasons for this are discussed. 7. Urea synthesis rates calculated from the pool values are in close agreement with rates calculated from the mass of urea recovered in the urine and the fraction of newly synthesized urea that is excreted.
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Project description:Although mutualisms are common in all ecological communities and have played key roles in the diversification of life, our current understanding of the evolution of cooperation applies mostly to social behavior within a species. A central question is whether mutualisms persist because hosts have evolved costly punishment of cheaters. Here, we use the economic theory of employment contracts to formulate and distinguish between two mechanisms that have been proposed to prevent cheating in host-symbiont mutualisms, partner fidelity feedback (PFF) and host sanctions (HS). Under PFF, positive feedback between host fitness and symbiont fitness is sufficient to prevent cheating; in contrast, HS posits the necessity of costly punishment to maintain mutualism. A coevolutionary model of mutualism finds that HS are unlikely to evolve de novo, and published data on legume-rhizobia and yucca-moth mutualisms are consistent with PFF and not with HS. Thus, in systems considered to be textbook cases of HS, we find poor support for the theory that hosts have evolved to punish cheating symbionts; instead, we show that even horizontally transmitted mutualisms can be stabilized via PFF. PFF theory may place previously underappreciated constraints on the evolution of mutualism and explain why punishment is far from ubiquitous in nature.
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Project description:Milk urea concentration is an indicator for dietary nitrogen (N)-supply and urinary nitrogen excretion. Dairy cows with high (HMU) compared to low milk urea (LMU) concentration have greater plasma urea, creatinine and uric acid concentrations, but if the liver metabolism accounts for these differences is unknown. Eighteen HMU and 18 LMU cows were fed either a diet with a low (LP) and normal (NP) crude protein concentration. An N-balance study was performed and a 13C-urea bolus was administered followed by a series of blood samplings. Liver samples were analysed by 2D-gel-based proteomics and real-time RT-PCR. Although HMU cows had a higher urea pool, plasma urea, uric acid, and hippuric acid concentrations, these differences were not associated with increased activation of the hepatic urea cycle or non-urea nitrogen metabolite pathways. Instead, HMU cows had a higher oxidative stress level. Conclusively, other factors than hepatic urea metabolism account for the milk urea concentration. Despite higher plasma urea concentrations on the LP diet, urea cycle mRNA expression was not affected, indicating it is not controlled at transcriptional level. Feeding the LP diet resulted in higher expressions of enzymes catabolizing fatty acids, which is likely due to diminished microbial growth and insufficient energy supply.
2022-09-27 | PXD033412 | Pride
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