Biosynthesis of guanidine in isolated rat hepatocytes, perfused rat liver and intact animals

Creatine and creatinine metabolism

The goal of this review is to present a comprehensive survey of the many intriguing facets of creatine (Cr) and creatinine metabolism, encompassing the pathways and regulation of Cr biosynthesis and degradation, species and tissue distribution of the enzymes and metabolites involved, and of the inherent implications for physiology and human pathology. Very recently, a series of new discoveries have been made that are bound to have distinguished implications for bioenergetics, physiology, human pathology, and clinical diagnosis and that suggest that deregulation of the creatine kinase (CK) system is associated with a variety of diseases. Disturbances of the CK system have been observed in muscle, brain, cardiac, and renal diseases as well as in cancer. On the other hand, Cr and Cr analogs such as cyclocreatine were found to have antitumor, antiviral, and antidiabetic effects and to protect tissues from hypoxic, ischemic, neurodegenerative, or muscle damage. Oral Cr ingestion is used in sports as an ergogenic aid, and some data suggest that Cr and creatinine may be precursors of food mutagens and uremic toxins. These findings are discussed in depth, the interrelationships are outlined, and all is put into a broader context to provide a more detailed understanding of the biological functions of Cr and of the CK system.

Renal handling of guanidino compounds in rat and rabbit

1. Guanidino compounds (GCs) have been quantified in different mammalian tissues such as brain, liver, muscle and kidney. The high anatomical heterogeneity of the kidney suggests that GCs could be unevenly distributed along the corticopapillary axis of the kidney in different species. 2. This study was designed to quantify twelve GCs in the different zones of rat and rabbit kidney. The kidneys were sliced and pieces of seven definite zones were weighed and homogenized for further GC extraction. GCs were determined by liquid chromatography. 3. The results indicate that: (1) GCs were unevenly distributed along rat and rabbit kidney; (2) qualitative and quantitative studies proved that each GC shows a particular distribution pattern along the corticopapillary axis for a given species; (3) in rats, alpha-keto-delta-guanidinovaleric acid, guanidinosuccinic acid, creatinine (CTN), methylguanidine and to a lesser extent gamma-guanidinobutyric acid increased steeply along the inner medulla in parallel to urea, whereas in rabbits, most of the GCs reached a plateau in the inner medulla and remained constant at this level; (4) gamma-guanidinobutyric acid was specifically found in the rat kidney; (5) argininic acid was higher in rabbit compared with rat kidney; (6) significantly higher levels of homoarginine were found in all zones of the rat kidney compared with the rabbit kidney. 4. The results suggest that: (1) GCs are mostly localized within the nephron segments; (2) an accumulation of GCs in the inner medulla might be explained either by a recycling process or by an intracellular storage as has been reported for urea, amino acids and organic osmolytes; (3) some GCs might be synthesized in nephron segments as reported for arginine (Arg) and guanidinoacetic acid (GAA); (4) several metabolic pathways of the GCs seemed to differ between rat and rabbit; (5) except for creatine, CTN, Arg and GAA, it seems unlikely that GCs might significantly increase the intracellular osmolality.