Liver glutamate-oxalate transaminase and glutamate-pyruvate transaminase activity in pigs as influenced by dietary methionine and lysine levels.

Abstract

Four trials involving 192 Large White X Landrace pigs were conducted to investigate the effect of wide variation of dietary methionine, lysine and caloric density on the activity of hepatic glutamate-oxalate ad glutamate-pyruvate transaminases. Results of the study show that: The activities of the two transaminases were influenced by the nutritional treatments. GOT and GPT activity exhibited significant positive and negative quadratic relationship respectively with dietary methionine levels. Both GOT and GPT activities decreased with increasing caloric density or palm oil level of the diet. In weanling pigs, both GOT and GPT exhibited significant negative quadratic relationship with dietary lysine levels and were also significantly influenced by the sex of the animals. In older pigs, only GOT activity was significantly affected by dietary lysine levels. The correlation of GOT and GPT activities to dietary essential amino acids shows that hepatic enzymatic activities could be good indices of essential amino acid utilization.