Possible Interaction: Ornithine and Alpha-Ketoglutarate

“These data provide evidence that the combination of ORN and alpha KG modifies amino acid metabolism in a way which is not observed when they are administered separately.”

“This observation is related to the fact that the main feature of Orn at the whole-body level is to be metabolized through the Orn aminotransferase-dependent pathway, whereas the simultaneous administration of Orn and alphaKG saturates this pathway, diverting Orn toward metabolism into Arg.”

“In addition, alpha-ketoglutarate in combination with ornithine dramatically increases the synthesis of arginine, proline and polyamines, which also play key roles in metabolic adaptation to trauma.”

“The recent literature suggests that the administration of alpha-ketoglutarate in combination with ornithine improves gut morphology and functions, counteracts trauma-induced dysimmunity and exerts anabolic/anticatabolic actions on protein metabolism.”

“ Alpha ketoglutarate of ornithine influences favorably nitrogen balance, prealbumine levels and the nutritional status.”

“Simultaneous administration of alpha-ketoglutarate and ornithine , in a 1:2 molar ratio, may improve the effectiveness of ornithine as an arginine precursor in neonatal piglets by shifting ornithine metabolism away from oxidation and toward the synthesis of arginine and other metabolically important compounds.”

“A specific metabolic interaction between alphaKG and ORN has been shown to be a key factor in the effects of OKG, but the impact of the ORN/alphaKG ratio (2 molecules of ORN for 1 molecule of alphaKG) has never been discussed.”

“In addition, the metabolic interaction between ORN and alphaKG (ie, in the presence of alphaKG, ORN metabolism is partially diverted toward PRO production), which is characteristic of OKG metabolism, still takes place even if the salt contains only 1 molecule of ORN instead of two.”

“A high degree of transamination was observed between 2 oxoglutarate and alanine, aspartate and ornithine.”