Plasma amino acid profiles at various reproductive stages in female
rats |
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Authors: | Rieko OKAME Keiko NAKAHARA Noboru MURAKAMI |
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Institution: | 1)Department of Veterinary Physiology, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Miyazaki, Miyazaki 889–2192, Japan |
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Abstract: | We measured the plasma levels of amino acids at various reproductive stages in female
rats, including the estrous cycle, pregnancy and lactation, and compared the resulting
amino acid profiles using two- or three-dimensional figures. These figures revealed that
the amino acid profiles of pregnant and lactating dams differed considerably from those
during the estrous cycle or in male rats. The plasma levels of individual amino acids were
almost the same between proestrus, estrus, metestrus and diestrus, and their profiles did
not differ significantly. However, the amino acid profiles changed during pregnancy and
lactation in dams. The plasma Ser level decreased significantly in mid and late pregnancy,
whereas Tyr, Gly and His decreased significantly in the late and end stages of pregnancy,
and Trp and Lys significantly decreased and increased at the end of pregnancy,
respectively. Much larger changes in amino acid profiles were observed during lactation,
when the levels of many amino acids increased significantly, and none showed a significant
decrease. Plasma Pro, Ser and Gly levels increased continuously from day 1 until day 15 of
lactation, whereas Asn and Met increased significantly from days 1 and 5 respectively
until the end of lactation. These results suggest that the profiles of plasma amino acids
show characteristic changes according to reproductive stage and that it may be necessary
to consider such differences when performing amino acid-based diagnosis. |
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Keywords: | diagnosis metabolism reproduction |
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