title: Transport and metabolism of agmatine in rat hepatocyte cultures.
abstract: Rat hepatocytes in culture take up [14C]-agmatine by both a high-affinity transport system [KM = 0.03 mM; Vmax = 30 pmol x min x (mg protein)-1] and a low-affinity system. The high-affinity system also transports putrescine, but not cationic amino acids such as arginine, and the polyamines spermidine and spermine. The rate of agmatine uptake is increased in cells deprived of polyamines with difluoromethylornithine. Of the agmatine taken up, 10% is transformed into polyamines and 50% is transformed into 4-guanidinobutyrate, as demonstrated by HPLC and MS. Inhibition by aminoguanidine and pargyline shows that this is due to diamine oxidase and an aldehyde dehydrogenase. 14C-4-aminobutyrate is also accumulated in the presence of an inhibitor of 4-aminobutyrate transaminase.
authors.affiliation: Sezione di Biochimica, Dipartimento di Medicina e Oncologia Sperimentale, Università di Torino, Italy.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Cabella
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Gardini
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Corpillo
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Testore
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Bedino
authors.forename: S P
authors.initials: SP
authors.lastname: Solinas
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Cravanzola
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Vargiu
authors.forename: M A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Grillo
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Colombatto
mesh_terms: D000376:Agmatine / Q000378:metabolism*; D000444:Aldehyde Dehydrogenase / Q000378:metabolism; D000818:Animals; D001120:Arginine / Q000378:metabolism; D001693:Biological Transport, Active; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D002851:Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid; D006146:Guanidines / Q000378:metabolism; D022781:Hepatocytes / Q000378:metabolism*; D007700:Kinetics; D008297:Male; D008956:Models, Chemical; D011073:Polyamines / Q000378:metabolism; D011700:Putrescine / Q000378:metabolism; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar; D021241:Spectrometry, Mass, Electrospray Ionization; D005680:gamma-Aminobutyric Acid / Q000096:biosynthesis
chemical_list: D006146:Guanidines; D011073:Polyamines; C001317:gamma-guanidinobutyric acid; D005680:gamma-Aminobutyric Acid; D000376:Agmatine; D001120:Arginine; D000444:Aldehyde Dehydrogenase; D011700:Putrescine