An animal model for the study of amino acid metabolism in uremia and during peritoneal dialysis.

We tried to determine the suitability of the rabbit as an animal model to study amino acid (AA) metabolism in continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis. We also measured the effect of intraperitoneal (ip) infusion of AA on blood AA changes and food consumption. Plasma AA levels were measured in 10 normal rabbits after an overnight fasting and 30, 60, and 120 minutes after a meal. Following these baseline observations, rabbits were randomly divided into two groups. One group of five rabbits was made uremic after surgical partial nephrectomy, whereas the remaining (controls) underwent sham operations. Two weeks after the induction of uremia we measured the effect of chronic renal failure on fasting and postprandial (30, 60, 120 minutes) plasma AA levels. Upon the completion of the second experiment (4 weeks after the induction of uremia) we studied the effect of an ip AA on plasma AA profile 1, 2, 4, and 6 hours after the infusion in both uremic and control rabbits. We also measured the food intake in all experiments. The results of our experiments showed the following: 1. plasma AA in the rabbits decreased after induction of chronic renal failure and increased after food ingestion and ip infusion of AA solution; 2. neither induction of uremia nor ip AA infusion have an effect on food consumption; 3. the majority of the alterations in plasma AA levels we observed in the uremic rabbits were similar to those observed in humans, indicating that the rabbit may be a suitable model for the study of AA metabolism in chronic renal failure and during peritoneal dialysis.