Changes in arginase activity and AST enzyme levels in the cardiac andskeletal muscle and liver of lambs with white muscle disease

Abstract

IntroductionNutritional myodegeneration, or white muscle disease (WMD), derived from a dietary deficiency of selenium and/or vitamin E, is characterized by cardiac and skeletal muscle degeneration with peracute to subacute form (1,2). The disease occurs during the first year of life, frequently before the age of 6 months (3). In the cardiac form, lambs with WMD show debilitation, weakness, a short clinical course, and an agonizing death, and in the skeletal form they often have cardiomyopathy and stiffness due to muscular fibrosis in the limbs (1). Significantly elevated serum aspartate aminotransferase (AST), creatinine kinase (CK), and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) activities are determined during the acute phase of myodegeneration (1,4). White patches appear in the affected muscles (5,6), which resemble fish flesh (7). In addition, hyaline degeneration, necrosis, and calcification occur in myocardial and skeletal muscles (5,8).Arginine plays a role in the regulation of muscle health by acting on protein synthesis, inhibition of proteolysis, and intracellular protein turnover (9). In addition, arginine functions as a precursor to nitric oxide (NO), polyamines, proline, glutamate, creatinine, and agmatine (10). The metabolism products of arginine, such as nitric oxide, citrulline, ornithine, and urea, are physiologically important with regard to tissue injury and repair, because the metabolite of NO can enhance tissue injury while the ornithine metabolite of arginine by arginase can increase tissue repair (11).The role of arginase activity in tissue repair has not been investigated in WMD as a nutritional myodegenerative disease. Myodegenerative diseases may affect the muscle AST enzyme activity. Thus, this study evaluated the arginase activity and AST enzyme levels in tissues of cardiac and skeletal muscle and liver in WMD in lambs. Materials and methods Animal materialEight lambs in agony, 2-3 months old, were presented to the Elazığ Veterinary Control Research Institute. The owner of the lambs stated that they presented signs of weakness and were unable to stand. The study material consisted of the cardiac and skeletal muscle and liver tissues of the dead lambs with WMD (WMD group) and the apparently healthy lambs of 3.5 months (control group) supplied from the Elkas slaughterhouse in Elazığ.

Investigation of the Effect and Possible Mechanism of Antihypertensive Activity of Lycopene-rich Extract of Solanum lycopersicon in Wistar Rats

“…The enzyme (cardiac arginase) activity was analyzed using the method of Hanedan et al [21] Five Wistar rats from each group were selected at random and sacrificed using 25% urethane anesthesia and an incision was made on the thorax using a sharp surgical blade and blood was bled out. Then a piece of cardiac (right ventricle) from the diseased (hypertensive) and healthy (hypertensive treated) were excised, rinsed with normal saline (0.9% NaCl) and immediately desiccated with filter paper, and kept frozen at -20°C until analysis.…”