Metabolism of arginine and ornithine in the cow and rabbit mammary tissue.

Amino acid uptake by the bovine mammary gland was determined by arteriovenous difference. Extraction of arginine from the plasma by the lactating bovine mammary gland was in excess of requirements for milk protein synthesis. Ornithine and citrulline also were extracted by the gland but are not in milk protein. Incubations of slices of lactating mammary tissue from cows and rabbits indicate that nonessential amino acids, especially proline and glutamate, are the major end products of arginine and ornithine metabolism in the lactating mammary gland.