Arginine metabolism and urea synthesis in cultured rat skeletal muscle cells.

Skeletal muscle is known to contain arginase, but, because this enzyme is also present in erythrocytes, the exact origin of arginine-derived ornithine in peripheral tissues is uncertain. In the present studies, skeletal muscle cells obtained from regenerating hindlimb muscle of adult rats were grown in primary tissue culture for approximately 3 wk and then studied in regard to changes in medium amino acid concentrations over a 48-h period. The consumption of arginine and serine was observed in parallel with the production of ornithine, proline, citrulline, glycine, and urea. Medium threonine and methionine concentrations were relatively constant over 48 h. Incubation of muscle cells with [U-14C]arginine resulted in the formation of [14C]ornithine and [14C]proline at rates at least 10-fold greater than could be accounted for by enzyme constituents of fetal calf serum. In addition, [guanido-14C]arginine was converted to [14C]urea and [U-14C]serine was converted to [14C]glycine. These studies indicate that cultured skeletal muscle cells contain a high arginase capacity and actively synthesize ornithine and urea from arginine.