Amino acid compartmentation in chick blood during the peri-hatching period.
Individual amino acid levels and compartmentation in chick blood were measured on day 20 of incubation, at hatching (day 0), or after 1 or 5 days of free life, and compared with those of adult chickens. Blood cell amino acid concentrations were almost one order of magnitude higher than those of plasma, with higher values than those found in mammalian erythrocytes. This difference may be due to the capability for protein synthesis of the nucleated cells coupled with a postulated utilization of amino acids as fuel. The most common pattern of individual plasma amino acid levels was a slight rise at hatching followed by a large decrease, with minimal values for adults. The patterns in the cells did not always coincide with those for plasma. Total blood amino acid levels increased steadily during the period studied due to the increase in intracellular amino acids, giving rise to increasing blood-cell/plasma concentration ratios. These changes showed higher availability of plasma amino acids just after hatching, while the cell concentrations increased steadily to the maximum values in adults. The increase in alanine levels in cells with little changes in plasma can be correlated with the role of this amino acid as the main 2-amino nitrogen carrier in the avian bloodstream. The high amino acid levels in the cells suggest that these cells act as inter-organ transporters and reservoirs of amino acids, they have a different role in their handling and metabolism from those of mammals.
D000367:Age Factors; D000596:Amino Acids / Q000097:blood*; D000818:Animals; D001773:Blood Cells / Q000378:metabolism; D002642:Chick Embryo / Q000502:physiology*; D002645:Chickens / Q000097:blood*
D000596:Amino Acids