[Effect of glutamic acid content of the diet on the catabolic rate of isotope-labeled glutamic acid in rats. 2. Time course of 14CO2 excretion following subcutaneous administration of 14C-glutamic acid].

40 rats with a body weight of 100 g received 7 semisynthetic diets with different contents of glutamic acid and one diet contained whole egg. A L-amino acid mixture corresponding to the pattern of egg protein was the protein source of the semisynthetic diets. Glutamic acid was supplemented successively from 0 to 58 mol-% of the total amino acid content. On the 8th day of experimental feeding the animals were labelled by subcutaneous injection of 14C-U-L-glutamic acid. Subsequently the CO2- and the 14CO2-excretion were measured for 24 hours. In this period 64 to 68% of the injected radioactivity were recovered as 14CO2. The curve pattern of 14CO2-excretion indicates two different processes of 14CO2-formation. One characterizing the direct degradation of glutamic acid to CO2 with a high rate constant and a second one with a lower rate constant characterizing the 14CO2-formation via metabolites of glutamic acid. 77% of the total 14CO2-excretion in 24 hours resulted from the direct oxidation of glutamic acid and 23% from the oxidation of intermediates. When 14CO2-formation was measured 10 to 24 hours after injection of 14C-glutamic acid a positive correlation to the content of glutamic acid in the diet was observed. The intestinal tissue contribute considerably to the catabolization of glutamic acid, however, there seems to exist an upper limit for this capacity.