Effects of -arginine-enriched total enteral nutrition on body weight gain, tumor growth, and in vivo concentrations of blood and tissue metabolites in rats inoculated with Walker tumor in the kidney

Objective We evaluated the effects of -arginine–enriched total enteral nutrition (LATEN) on tumor-free and right kidney tumor-bearing rats through the determination of in vivo concentrations of metabolites to better understand intermediary metabolism in this model. Methods Rats were individually housed in wire cages within a controlled environment (25°C and 50% relative humidity) and exposed to a 12-h light-and-dark cycle. Rats comprised the following groups: tumor-free on enteral nutrition plus -amino acid (n = 8); tumor-free on enteral nutrition plus -arginine (n = 8); tumor bearing on enteral nutrition plus -amino acids (n = 8); and tumor bearing on enteral nutrition plus -arginine (n = 8). Rats had their right kidneys inoculated with saline or tumor cells and were subjected to laparotomy or gastrostomy on day 1 and received chow diet for the next 2 days. Gastrostomy with enteral nutrition was performed on days 3 to 9. On day 9, body weight gain, tumor growth as volume, in vivo blood (μM/mL), and tissue (μM/g) metabolite concentrations were determined. The Mann-Whitney U test was used to test significance. Results LATEN in tumor-free rats decreased liver (0.25 ± 0.03 versus 0.13 ± 0.03 μmol/g, P < 0.05) and right kidney (0.13 ± 0.1 versus 0.04 ± 0.00 μmol/g, P < 0.05) ketone body concentrations. LATEN in tumor-bearing rats decreased blood pyruvate (0.17 ± 0.01 versus 0.10 ± 0.008 μM/mL, P < 0.005), lactate (5.2 ± 0.3 versus 2.9 ± 0.28 μM/mL, P < 0.01), and glucose (6.4 ± 0.8 versus 3.7 ± 0.5 μM/mL, P < 0.05). Glucose concentrations decreased in liver (13.9 ± 2.0 versus 4.89 ± 0.6 μM/g, P < 0.005) and tumor (3.5 ± 0.8 versus 1.41 ± 0.3 μM/g, P < 0.05). There were no changes in body weight gain (21 ± 2.0 versus 30.3 ± 3.6 g) or tumor growth (1.53 ± 0.1 versus 1.26 ± 0.01 cm3). Conclusions LATEN decreased ketone body concentrations in liver and kidney in tumor-free rats, possibly due to lower ketogenesis and decreased kidney uptake. In tumor-bearing rats, LATEN decreased lacticemia and glycemia and pyruvate blood concentrations. LATEN also reduced liver and tumor glucose concentrations in tumor-bearing animals. The possibility of LATEN-induced insulin and insulin-like growth factor-1 liberation signaling these changes is discussed.