title: On the application of compartmental models to radioactive tracer kinetic studies of in vivo protein turnover in animals.
abstract: A mathematical framework is presented for unifying and extending the various compartmental models and formulae used to calculate fractional protein synthesis and degradation rates in animals from data obtained by infusing labelled amino acids. It is shown how the various schemes can be derived as special cases of the product-precursor model or some three-pool variant. Three-compartment representations, which circumvent the need to measure the specific radioactivity of the precursor pool, are proposed. The mathematical solutions are generally presented in a form that is amenable to parameter estimation by non-linear least squares. The problems of measuring the true precursor pool for protein synthesis are addressed, and theoretical consideration is given to assaying aminoacyl-tRNA.
authors.affiliation: AFRC Institute for Grassland and Animal Production, Berkshire, U.K.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: France
authors.forename: C C
authors.initials: CC
authors.lastname: Calvert
authors.forename: R L
authors.initials: RL
authors.lastname: Baldwin
authors.forename: K C
authors.initials: KC
authors.lastname: Klasing
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D007700:Kinetics; D008954:Models, Biological; D011506:Proteins / Q000378:metabolism*; D011868:Radioisotopes
chemical_list: D011506:Proteins; D011868:Radioisotopes