Citrulline arginine synthesis

An anomaly associated with citrulline that became evident when detailed kinetic studies were made in the 1950s (R.B. Fisher and J.R. Bronk) was the irreproducibility of its catalytic activity in liver slices on the formation of urea, despite the clear evidence from Ratner and Petrack of its importance in arginine synthesis. Initially the discrepancy in catalytic activity between ornithine and citrulline was ascribed to the possible impermeability of the liver cell plasma membrane to the latter intermediate, a hypothesis which was rapidly disproved experimentally. Only recently has it been shown that ornithine transcarbamylase is clearly associated with the ornithine/... 

Figure 24-10 Biosynthesis of citrulline, arginine, and urea. The green arrows indicate reactions directly involved in deamination of amino acids and the synthesis of urea. N from amino acids and C from C02 are traced in green.

G. Wu and C. J. Meininger, Regulation of L-arginine synthesis from L-citrulline by L-glutamine in endothelial cells. Am J Physiol 265, H1965-H1971 (1993). 

R6. Ratner, S., and Pappas, A., Biosynthesis of urea Part 1. Enzymatic mechanism of arginine synthesis from citrulline. J. Biol. Chem. 179, 1183-1198 (1949). 

Fig. 6.18 Biosynthesis of NO. The starting point and citrulline. Arginine can be regenerated from of NO synthesis is arginine. Arginine is converted by citrulline via reactions of the urea cycle.

Fig. 3. Proline and arginine synthesis and degradation to show interrelationships between the pathways. The structures are glutamic acid (GLU), ornithine (ORN), citrulline (CIT), arginine (ARG), urea. 2-oxo-5-amino valeric acid (OAV), A -pyrroline-2-carboxylic acid (P2C), proline (PRO), A -pyrroline-5-carboxylic acid (P5C), glutamic semialdehyde (GSA).

The enzymes of the urea cycle, however, are not only expressed in the liver, but also in other tissues and cell types. In fact, it is believed that the urea cycle evolved from the arginine metabolic pathway present in lower organisms (Takiguchi et al, 1989). This difference in function between urea and arginine synthesis is reflected by the different tissue localization, function and regulation of the enzymes of the urea cycle and other enzymes involved in the metabolism of the urea cycle intermediates, arginine, citrulline and ornithine. 

Citrulline more than the precursor for arginine synthesis... 

Patients who survive the neonatal period can be maintained with a low-protein diet and sodium benzoate. A useful therapeutic adjunct for citrullinemia and argininosuccinic aciduria is dietary arginine supplementation, which enhances the ability to eliminate nitrogen as either citrulline or argininosuccinate. Maintaining normal arginine levels also facilitates protein synthesis. 

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