Effect of developmental stage on arginase and urea production in the liver of rat

Arginase activity in the liver, brain, and testis of rats was examined during the different phases of life span. When expressed as specific activity (micromoles of L-arginine hydrolyzed per minute per gram of whole homogenate protein), the enzyme activity in the brain and testis decreased markedly during the early stage of life and stayed low during the remainder of the life span. On the other hand, the arginase in the liver showed a great dependency on the developmental phase of the animal, showing two distinct peaks: one during the early phase (20 days after birth) and the other at a later time (3 months of age). This pattern of change in the hepatic arginase activity closely coincided with the pattern of the rate of urea synthesis determined with liver slices and expressed in terms of micromoles of urea formed per hour per gram of tissue slice. In contrast to the above observations, however, curves obtained by plotting the total liver arginase or urea synthetic activity vs the developmental stage of rats showed no measurable discontinuity. Further studies revealed that the observed pattern of specific activity of hepatic arginase was, in part, due to the change in the relative concentration of arginase protein in the liver.