title: The effects of tumour necrosis factor-alpha on circulating amino acids in the pregnant rat.
abstract: The administration of an acute dose (6 nmol) of tumour necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) to 20-day pregnant rats resulted in important changes in the circulating concentration of maternal blood amino acids. The main changes concern increases in the concentration of neutral (alanine, glycine, threonine, proline), branched-chain (valine, leucine, isoleucine), basic (lysine, histidine), aromatic (phenylalanine) and acidic (aspartate and glutamate) amino acids. The cytokine treatment also increased the total concentration of circulating amino acids. In contrast, the cytokine did not promote any changes in the concentration of amino acids in the fetal circulation. The results suggested support that TNF-alpha may be responsible for impaired fetal growth as a consequence of a decrease in the transplacental passage of amino acids.
authors.affiliation: Departament de Bioquimica i Fisiologia, Facultat de Biologia, Universitat de Barcelona, Spain.
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Carbó
authors.forename: F J
authors.initials: FJ
authors.lastname: López-Soriano
authors.forename: J M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Argilés
mesh_terms: D000596:Amino Acids / Q000097:blood*; D000597:Amino Acids, Branched-Chain / Q000097:blood; D000599:Amino Acids, Diamino / Q000097:blood; D000600:Amino Acids, Dicarboxylic / Q000097:blood; D000818:Animals; D005260:Female; D010649:Phenylalanine / Q000097:blood; D011247:Pregnancy; D011270:Pregnancy, Animal / Q000097:blood*; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar; D011994:Recombinant Proteins / Q000494:pharmacology; D012016:Reference Values; D014409:Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha / Q000494:pharmacology*
chemical_list: D000596:Amino Acids; D000597:Amino Acids, Branched-Chain; D000599:Amino Acids, Diamino; D000600:Amino Acids, Dicarboxylic; D011994:Recombinant Proteins; D014409:Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha; D010649:Phenylalanine