ArticleBMC developmental biology2008
The human neonatal small intestine has the potential for arginine synthesis; developmental changes in the expression of arginine-synthesizing and -catabolizing enzymes.
Article in BMC developmental biology, 2008. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 31 papers.
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Who cites it
31 citing papers in PubMed, 48 citations in OpenAlex.
- Metabolic profile association with white matter hyperintensity in patients with mild cognitive impairment.IBRO neuroscience reports · 2026Article
- L-Citrulline: Novel Pharmacotherapy to Improve Outcomes in Infants and Children at Risk of Systemic or Pulmonary Vascular Disease.Pharmaceuticals (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Analysis of the Stimulative Effect of Arginine on Translation Initiation of Protein Synthesis in Skeletal Muscle.Nutrients · 2025Article
- Nonessential amino acid is not nonessential in geriatric patients: implications for maxillofacial wound healing and bone repair.Maxillofacial plastic and reconstructive surgery · 2025Review
- Adaptation of Conductometric Monoenzyme Biosensor for Rapid Quantitative Analysis of L-arginine in Dietary Supplements.Sensors (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- The Potential of Rhizobacteria to Mitigate Abiotic Stress inPlants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Review
- Determination of the pH dependence, substrate specificity, and turnovers of alternative substrates for human ornithine aminotransferase.The Journal of biological chemistry · 2022Article
- Unraveling the Proteomic Landscape of Intestinal Epithelial Cell-Derived Exosomes in Mice.Frontiers in physiology · 2022Article
- Intestinal resection affects whole-body arginine synthesis in neonatal piglets.Pediatric research · 2021Article
- Modeling age-dependent developmental changes in the expression of genes involved in citrulline synthesis using pig enteroids.Physiological reports · 2020Article
- Distinct lipid signatures are identified in the plasma of rats with chronic inflammation induced by estradiol benzoate and sex hormones.Metabolomics : Official journal of the Metabolomic Society · 2020Article
- Developmental changes in the utilization of citrulline by neonatal pigs.American journal of physiology. Renal physiology · 2020Article
- Plasma citrulline is not a biomarker for intestinal adaptation in short bowel syndrome, studied in piglets: a model for human neonates.Pediatric surgery international · 2019Article
- Correlation between plasma levels of arginine and citrulline in preterm and full-term neonates: Therapeutical implications.Journal of clinical laboratory analysis · 2017Article
- Proline Precursors and Collagen Synthesis: Biochemical Challenges of Nutrient Supplementation and Wound Healing.The Journal of nutrition · 2017Review
- The intestinal-renal axis for arginine synthesis is present and functional in the neonatal pig.American journal of physiology. Endocrinology and metabolism · 2017Article
- Ornithine Aminotransferase, an Important Glutamate-Metabolizing Enzyme at the Crossroads of Multiple Metabolic Pathways.Biology · 2017Review
- Association between the p.Thr1406Asn polymorphism of the carbamoyl-phosphate synthetase 1 gene and necrotizing enterocolitis: A prospective multicenter study.Scientific reports · 2016Article
- Review
- Metabolic features of chronic fatigue syndrome.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2016Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
8 authors at 4 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundMilk contains too little arginine for normal growth, but its precursors proline and glutamine are abundant; the small intestine of rodents and piglets produces arginine from proline during the suckling period; and parenterally fed premature human neonates frequently suffer from hypoargininemia. These findings raise the question whether the neonatal human small intestine also expresses the enzymes that enable the synthesis of arginine from proline and/or glutamine. Carbamoylphosphate synthetase (CPS), ornithine aminotransferase (OAT), argininosuccinate synthetase (ASS), arginase-1 (ARG1), arginase-2 (ARG2), and nitric-oxide synthase (NOS) were visualized by semiquantitative immunohistochemistry in 89 small-intestinal specimens.
resultsBetween 23 weeks of gestation and 3 years after birth, CPS- and ASS-protein content in enterocytes was high and then declined to reach adult levels at 5 years. OAT levels declined more gradually, whereas ARG-1 was not expressed. ARG-2 expression increased neonatally to adult levels. Neurons in the enteric plexus strongly expressed ASS, OAT, NOS1 and ARG2, while varicose nerve fibers in the circular layer of the muscularis propria stained for ASS and NOS1 only. The endothelium of small arterioles expressed ASS and NOS3, while their smooth-muscle layer expressed OAT and ARG2.
conclusionThe human small intestine acquires the potential to produce arginine well before fetuses become viable outside the uterus. The perinatal human intestine therefore resembles that of rodents and pigs. Enteral ASS behaves as a typical suckling enzyme because its expression all but disappears in the putative weaning period of human infants.
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