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Query: UMLS:C0038187 (starvation)
 24,951 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

In garden dormouse protein deficiency leads to reversible hypothermic torpor, comparable with that provoked by starvation or occuring naturally during hibernation, whether the diet consists wholly of apples or of synthetic protein-free food. Torpor induced by protein deficiency occurs even though the energy requirements of the animal are amply satisfied. These phases of lethargy occur after a certain delay and with a variable frequency, both of which vary with the ambient temperature.
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PMID:[Lethargic hypothermia induced by a protein free diet in a hibernating rodent, the dormouse (Eliomys quercinus L.)]. 15 12

The daily flux of amino acids in the body is extensive. Protein synthesis is estimated to be 300 g daily in an adult man. This requires uptake and release of 150 g essential amino acids, yet the dietary requirement for essential amino acids in only 6 g. This indicates extensive and efficient recycling of essential amino acids released by protein breakdown. The catabolism of essential amino acids by the liver is sensitively regulated in relation to requirements. A study of availability of tryptophan to rats receiving various levels of tryptophan in the diet shows that plasma tryptophan increases only when intake exceeds requirements and at these higher levels of intake tryptophan oxygenase activity in the liver becomes increased shortly after meals. In addition, the carbohydrate content of the diet causes tryptophan to become deposited in the free amino acid pool of muscle through an insulin-dependent mechanism. Dietary carbohydrate also effects plasma tryptophan due to a fall in the plasma level of non-esterified fatty acids which compete with tryptophan for binding sites on serum albumin. Consequently, after carbohydrate the proportion of plasma tryptophan bound to serum albumin increases, so that there is less nonbound tryptophan in the plasma. The metabolic significance of this has yet to be demonstrated. Finally, protein metabolism in skeletal muscle exhibits considerable efficiency of reutilization of essential amino acids, since the main products passing into the blood are alanine and glutamine. It has been shown that 3-methylhistidine present in muscle protein in not reutilized for synthesis of protein and that its excretion in the urine can provide a useful index of muscle catabolism. In prolonged starvation of adults or protein deficiency in children, output of 3-methylhistidine is much reduced, suggesting an adaptive reduction in muscle protein catabolism. It is emphasized that, because of its function in monitoring dietary amino acid intake, liver protein metabolism responds rapidly to changes in protein intake and in consequence protein deficiency causes early depletion, whereas muscle protein undergoes depletion later and is subject to adaptive processes that restrict the loss.
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PMID:Regulation of protein metabolism in relation to adequacy of intake. 81 Apr 22

Carnitine is synthesized from lysine and methionine. In the rat, inadequate intake of either of these essential amino acids causes carnitine depletion. Inasmuch as protein deficiency is common in the hospital population, we have investigated the possible occurrence of nosocomial carnitine deficiency. Fasting serum carnitine concentration was measured in 16 normal and 247 patients in 16 disease groups. Normal range of carnitine was 55-103 muM. Only the cirrhotic group showed significant (P < 0.05) hypocarnitinemia. 14 of 36 hospitalized cirrhotics had subnormal values for serum carnitine. The creatinine/height index, midarm muscle circumference, and triceps skin-fold thickness indicated protein-calorie starvation in the 14 hypocarnitinemic liver patients. In six of the hypocarnitinemic cirrhotics (average serum level 50% of normal), spontaneous dietary intakes of carnitine, lysine, and methionine were measured and found to be only 5-15% as great as in six normocarnitinemic, healthy controls. When these six cirrhotic and six normal subjects were given the same lysine-rich, methionine-rich, and carnitine-free nutritional intake, the normals maintained normal serum carnitine levels and excreted 100 mumol/day, whereas the cirrhotics' serum level fell to 25% of normal, and urinary excretion declined to 15 mumol/day. Seven hypocarnitinemic cirrhotics died. Postmortem concentrations of carnitine in liver, muscle, heart, kidney, and brain averaged only one-fourth to one-third those in corresponding tissues of eight normally nourished nonhepatic patients who died after an acute illness of a 1-3-day duration. THESE DATA SHOW THAT CARNITINE DEPLETION IS COMMON IN PATIENTS HOSPITALIZED FOR ADVANCED CIRRHOSIS, AND THAT IT RESULTS FROM THREE FACTORS: substandard intake of dietary carnitine; substandard intake of lysine and methionine, the precursors for endogenous carnitine synthesis; and loss of capacity to synthesize carnitine from lysine and methionine.
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PMID:Deficiency of carnitine in cachectic cirrhotic patients. 89 75

The urinary excretion of p-hydroxybenzoate was not altered by ubiquinone feeding, but, although decreased considerably, was not eliminated in protein deficiency. The incorporation of p-hydroxy[U-14C]benzaldehyde into ubiquinone in vivo increased in cold-exposed and p-chlorophenoxyisobutyrate (clofibrate)-fed rats, and these changes were parallel with the changes in the incorporation of [2-14C]mevalonate under these conditions. Starvation, cholesterol feeding and cholic acid feeding resulted in the decreased incorporation of p-hydroxy[U-14C]benzaldehyde into ubiquinone, confirming the decreased ubiquinone synthesis. Feeding exogenous ubiquinone increased the hepatic ubiquinone concentration, but did not cause any decrease in the incorporation of p-hydroxy[U-14C]benzaldehyde into ubiquinone, indicating the absence of a feedback control.
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PMID:The regulation of the biosynthesis of ubiquinone in the rat. 115 98

Effect of different concentration of non-ionic detergents (Triton X-100, Triton X-305, BRIJ-35 and Triton WR-1339) on total and non-sedimentable activity of 8 rat liver lysosome enzymes (acid phosphatase, acid DNase, acid RNase, arylsulphatases A and B, beta-glucuronidase, beta-galactosidase, beta-glucosidase and beta-acetylglucosaminidase) was studied. Only Triton X-100 at the concentration of 0.1% (and higher) was found to release completely lysosome enzymes. Low concentrations of Triton X-100 (0.025-0.05%) were used to characterize the strength of enzyme binding: the level of releasing acid DNase, beta-galactosidase, beta-glucuronidase and acid phsophatase being considerably higher than that of other lysosome enzymes studied. On the basis of the data obtained a method is worked out, which is suitable for series studies of the stability of lysosome membranes under different physiological and pathological conditions. The essence of the method is the treatment of membrane particles with increasing concentrations of Triton X-100 (0.025; 0.05 AND 0.1%) AND THE SUCCESSIVE ESTIMATION OF NON-Sedimentable activity of marker enzymes. The method detected troubles in the stability of rat liver lysosome membranes under starvation, protein deficiency and aging.
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PMID:[Determination of lysosome membrane stability]. 120 72

Prolonged starvation in rats is accompanied by consistent increases in the total cardiac activity and the nonsedimentable activity of cathepsin D, the major detectable lysosomal acid proteinase in the heart. Fluorescent staining of rabbit hearts with specific anticathepsin D antiserum reveals that the increase occured predominantly in myocytes, but increased formation of autophagic vacuoles cannot be demonstrated in the myocardial cells by electron microscopy. No changes in cathepsin D occur in animals fed pure carbohydrate or pure fat diets for similar periods, indicating that it is caloric deficiency and not dietary protein deficiency that alters catheptic activity. At the same time that cardiac cathepsin D activity increases markedly, acid phosphatase increases slightly, and the activity of beta-acetyl-glucosaminidase is significantly lower than in hearts of fed rats. The data are compatible with the hypothesis that increased activity of lysosomal acid proteinase may contribute to the net protein catabolism and cardiac atrophy that accompany starvation, especially late in the period of food deprivation. A generalized activation of all lysosomal enzymes does not occur with starvation, however, and the activities of some lysosomal enzymes in the heart decrease.
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PMID:Dietary control of cardiac lysosomal enzyme activities. 121 47

In a study of the mechanism of adaptation to protein deficiency, 10 moderately obese women underwent a 3-wk fast followed by random allocation to a 1-wk refeeding regimen providing 80 g carbohydrate or protein. Protein metabolism was studied by means of nitrogen (N) balance, urinary 3-methylhistidine excretion, and postabsorptive plasma leucine flux using L-[1-13C]leucine infusions. After the 3-wk fast, plasma leucine flux and 3-methylhistidine excretion both decreased by 31% from control diet values (P less than 0.01), and N balance was -5.9 g/day. After protein refeeding, N balance was positive (+1.7 g/day, P less than 0.05) whereas leucine flux was unchanged from prolonged fasting values. After carbohydrate refeeding, N balance improved to -3.1 g N/day, whereas leucine flux decreased by a further 18% (P less than 0.05). Protein and carbohydrate refeeding were associated with further 23 and 31% reductions of 3-methylhistidine excretion compared with prolonged fasting (P less than 0.05). The results support the hypothesis that improved efficiency of protein retention in starvation is intimately associated with a decreased rate of protein turnover.
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PMID:Protein metabolic effects of a prolonged fast and hypocaloric refeeding. 218 64

A comparison of the changes in the concentration of glutamine [Gln] in skeletal muscle in a variety of catabolic states with the attendant changes in rates of protein synthesis and degradation indicates a number of substantial correlations which provide insight into both the way in which [Gln] is regulated in muscle and possible regulatory influences of [Gln] on protein balance. There is a striking direct correlation between [Gln] and the rate of protein synthesis in the whole data set. Further examination of this relationship in protein deficiency shows that the changes in [Gln] correlate mainly with the reductions in ribosomal concentration (RNA/protein) and with the decrease in the rate of protein degradation. Because the fall in [Gln] in protein deficiency is also correlated with the decrease in free T3 concentrations, it is suggested that in this case the correlations of [Gln] with rates of protein turnover may be incidental, reflecting thyroidal influences on both protein turnover and glutamine transport. In contrast, in endotoxemia the changes in [Gln] were highly correlated with the ribosomal activity, kRNA, and in this case [Gln] was inversely correlated with the rate of protein degradation. Similar correlated changes occur in starvation and in response to glucocorticoids, and it is suggested that the reductions in [Gln] in endotoxemia could be causally related to the development of insulin resistance and the inhibition of the translational phase of protein synthesis which occurs in these circumstances. The mechanism of the reduction in [Gln] and any linked inhibition of protein synthesis is unknown, but it is shown to be independent of prostaglandin production.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
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PMID:Muscle glutamine concentration and protein turnover in vivo in malnutrition and in endotoxemia. 266 4

Muscle glutamine concentration ([GLN]) and protein synthesis rate (Ks) have been examined in vivo in well-fed, protein-deficient, starved, and endotoxemic rats. With protein deficiency (8 or 5% casein diet), [GLN] fell from 7.70 to 5.58 and 3.56 mmol/kg in the 8 and 5% diet groups, with Ks falling from 15.42 to 9.1 and 6.84%/day. Three-day starvation reduced [GLN] and Ks to 2.38 mmol/kg and 5.6%/day, respectively. In all these groups food intakes and insulin were generally well maintained (except in the starved group), whereas free 3,5,3'-triiodothyronine (T3) was depressed in the starved and 5% protein group. The E. coli lipopolysaccharide endotoxin (3 mg/kg) reduced [GLN] to 5.85 and 4.72 mmol/kg and Ks to 10.5 and 9.10%/day in two well-fed groups. Insulin levels were increased, and free T3 levels fell. Combined protein deficiency and endotoxemia further reduced [GLN] and Ks to 1.88 mmol/kg and 4.01%/day, respectively, in the 5% protein rats. Changes in both ribosomal activity (KRNA) and concentration (RNA/protein) contributed to the fall in Ks in malnutrition and endotoxemia, although reductions in the RNA concentration were most marked with protein deficiency and reductions in the KRNA dominated the response to the endotoxin. The changes in [GLN] and Ks were highly correlated as were [GLN] and both KRNA and the RNA concentration, and these relationships were unique to glutamine. These relationships could reflect sensitivity of glutamine transport and protein synthesis to the same regulatory influences, and the particular roles of insulin and T3 are discussed, as well as any direct influence of glutamine on protein synthesis.
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PMID:Relationship between glutamine concentration and protein synthesis in rat skeletal muscle. 313 58

L-Histidinol, an analogue of the amino acid L-histidine, has been reported to be able to increase the specificity of 5-fluorouracil (FUra), through both protection of normal tissues at risk and potentiation of leukemic cell killing. It is postulated that this occurs through prevention of the entry of normal cells into the cell cycle through protein deficiency, while allowing malignant cells, permissive for protein starvation, to continue to cycle, thus maintaining sensitivity for cycle specific anticancer agents. Reported in this paper is the confirmation of these L-histidinol-FUra effects. However, a modification was made by which more L-histidinol could be given and more consistent protection of whole animals demonstrated. Further, an optimal schedule of L-histidinol was defined in which FUra preceded L-histidinol infusion. Finally, the specificity and proliferation dependence of this schedule was evaluated on colony forming units-spleen in resting and proliferating state, colony forming units-granulocyte-macrophage, and L1210 leukemia. This demonstrates that the FUra/L-histidinol combination indeed protects only normal cells but that the postulated proliferation dependence is absent, indicating an alternate biological mechanism.
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PMID:Specificity, schedule, and proliferation dependence of infused L-histidinol after 5-fluorouracil in mice. 334 20


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