Arginine: beyond protein.
Arginine, a semiessential or conditionally essential amino acid in humans, is one of the most metabolically versatile amino acids and serves as a precursor for the synthesis of urea, nitric oxide, polyamines, proline, glutamate, creatine, and agmatine. Arginine is metabolized through a complex and highly regulated set of pathways that remain incompletely understood at both the whole-body and the cellular levels. Adding to the metabolic complexity is the fact that limited arginine availability can selectively affect the expression of specific genes, most of which are themselves involved in some aspect of arginine metabolism. This overview highlights selected aspects of arginine metabolism, including areas in which our knowledge remains fragmentary and incomplete.
Department of Molecular Genetics and Biochemistry, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, PA 15261, USA. smorris@pitt.edu
Sidney M
SM
Morris
D026905:Amino Acid Transport Systems; D000818:Animals; D001119:Arginase / Q000378:metabolism; D001120:Arginine / Q000378:metabolism / Q000502:physiology*; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans
D026905:Amino Acid Transport Systems; D001120:Arginine; D001119:Arginase