Download CREATINE IN THE DIET OF THE BABY PIG 1, 2 E. R. MILLER, ]3. V

CREATINE
E. R.
MILLER,
]3. V.
IN THE
DIET
OF THE
B A B Y P I G 1, 2
H. D. STOWE, D. E. U L L R E Y , J. A. HOEFER AND
R. W. LUECKE a
Michigan State University, East Lansing
BALTZER,
recent years interest has increased in the
I Ndietary
administration of creatine or creafine precursors to experimental animals to
study their effects upon growth and creafine
content of muscle and upon bodyweight gain.
Fisher et al. (1956a,b) have shown that the
muscle creatine level of 1-day old chicks, on a
25% casein purified diet, increases linearly
over a 4-week period. They have shown that
with such diets arginine is the most limiting
amino acid and that by supplying both arginine and glycine to the 25% casein purified
diet, growth equal to that of chicks on practical diets is obtainable. Monson et al. (1955),
Wietlake et al. (1954) and Edwards et al.
(1958) obtained similar results.
Poutsiaka (1956) and Baron (1958) increased muscle creatine and growth rate of
rats when their 12% casein purified diet was
supplemented with glycocyamine and methionine.
Baker et al. (1961) have recently reported
failure to increase growth or muscle creatine
by parenteral administration of creatine or
creatine precursors to the suckling pig. The
present study was conducted to determine if
the addition of creatine or creatine precursors
to a purified diet containing 30% casein for
the baby pig will improve his rate of growth
and feed economy and increase the size and
creatine content of muscle.
Experimental
Two trials were conducted utilizing 24
baby pigs. Pigs were taken from the sow at
3 or 4 days of age and housed individually
in wire-bottomed steel cages. The diet was
fed as a homogenized synthetic milk similar
to that utilized by Miller et al. (1954). After
a 4-day adjustment period the pigs were allotted to groups and started on trial. The control lot received the complete synthetic milk
1 Published with the approval of the Director of the _Michigan
Agricultural Experiment Station as Journal Article No. 2922.
2 A prelinlinary report has been presented in J. Animal Sci.
17:1161, 1958 (abstract).
a Departments of Animal Husbandry, Biochemistry and
Veterinary Pathology.
458
diet, the creatine-fed lot received the same
diet supplemented with 0.2% creatine monohydrate, and a third lot received the control
diet supplemented with 0.28% L-arginine hydrochloride plus 0.1% glycine. The length of
the experimental feeding period was 32 and
42 days in trials 1 and 2, respectively.
Pig weights were taken every 4 days.
Twenty-four hour urine samples were collected weekly from all pigs. Creatine and
creatinine determinations were made on the
urine samples using the procedure of Clark
and Thompson (1949). Two pigs from each
regime were sacrificed at the conclusion of the
trials to make gross pathological inspection
and to obtain certain organ and muscle
weights. The creatine content of the right
superficial digital flexor and gastrocnemius
muscles was determined by the method of
Poutsiaka (1956). All data were analyzed
using the multiple range test of Duncan
(1955).
Results and D i s c u s s i o n
In both trials the pigs were about 1 week
old when experimental feeding was commenced. The rate of food consumption was
very satisfactory throughout the feeding periods. A comparison of growth and the efficiency of food utilization of pigs on the
three dietary regimes is presented in table 1.
In the first trial the creatine-fed pigs gained
14% faster on 8% less feed than the control group but these differences were not
statistically significant ( P > . 0 5 ) . The performance of pigs receiving added arginine and
glycine was similar to that of the control pigs.
Since it has been shown that the younger
chick (Fisher et al., 1956a,b) and pig (Baker
et al., 1961) have lower muscle creatine levels
than other animals, it w a s considered advisable in the present study to utilize smaller'
pigs in the second trial believing that the
physiologically younger animals would receive
a greater benefit from dietary creatine or
creatine precursors. Such was not the case. As
C R E A T I N E I N D I E T OF P I G
459
TABLE 1. G R O W T H AND FOOD U T I L I Z A T I O N OF BABY PIGS R E C E I V I N G S Y N T H E T I C
M I L K D I E T S S U P P L E M E N T E D W I T H C R E A T I N E OR C R E A T I N E PRECURSORS
Trial 1
Trial 2
Arginine
+
Control
Creatine a
glycine b
Control
Creatine"
glycine b
4
32
5.0 -+0.5
0.50-+0.06
4
32
5.0 -+0.2
0.57-+0.02
4
32
5.0 -+0.2
0.51-+0.02
4
42
3.5 -+0.1
0.43__+0.01
4
42
3.5 •
0.43-+0.01
4
42
3.5 ___0.1
0.43-+0.02
0.59-+0.05
1.20-+0.06
0.62-+0.05
1.10-+-0.01
0.57-+0.02
1.12-+0.05
0.57__+0.01
1.31-+-0.03
0.57-+0.01
1.31-+0.01
0.57-+0.01
1.31-+0.06
Item
No. of pigs
Days on experiment
Av. initialwt.,lb.
Av. daily gain, lb.
Av. daily solids
consumed, lb.
Solids/gain
Arginine
+
a 0.2 % creatine monohydrate added to control diet.
b 0.28% L-arginine hydrochloride and 0.1% glycine added to diet.
a group each of the lots ate and gained identically over a 42-day experimental feeding
period (table 1, trial 2).
Twenty-four hour urine collections were
made weekly on each pig in both trials. D a t a
from both trials were combined and are summarized in table 2. Daily urine volume as
well as urinary creatine and creatinine excretion were highly variable. Urinary excretion
of creatine was significantly greater by those
pigs receiving creatine in the diet. Urinary
creatinine excretion by these pigs was also
somewhat greater. There was no increase in
urinary excretion of creatine or creatinine
T A B L E 2. DALLY U R I N E V O L U M E AND U R I NARY E X C R E T I O N OF C R E A T I N E
AND C R E A T I N I N E
Regimen
Item
No. of pigs
Control
8
24 hour urine volume (ml.)
1st week
229-+33
2nd "
396-+26
3rd "
599•
4th "
579-+38
5th "
828-+232
Creatine
8
184-+31
361+37
520-+34
657-+82
845-+146
Arginine
+
glycine
8
221-+36
381-+20
439+47
401+__87
947-+236
24 hour creafine excretion (mg.)
lstweek
19.2-+ 4.1
21.5-+ 5.8
2nd "
19.7-+ 2.3
49.3-+__ 9.9**
3rd "
36.6-+ 1.6
64.3+13.9"*
4th "
37.5----- 3.1
70.5-+20.8*
5th "
61.2-+12.7 129.2-+17.7"*
18.5-+1.7
20.9-++-1.5
29.3-+-2.4
29.6•
54.2-+7.0
24 hour creatinine excretion (rag.)
1st week
60-+9
53-+9
2nd "
97--+-_7
100-+8
3rd "
147-+12
160-+25
4th "
148-+13
212+__16"
5th "
244-+34
397+__88
48-+9
98-+9
152_+16
113_____26
299-+-58
* Significantly greater than other regimen mean values (P~
.05).
*~ P<.OI.
by pigs receiving additional arginine and glycine in the diet indicating little or no creatine
biosynthesis from the added precursors.
Examination of the pigs which were sacrificed at the end of the two trials did not reveal
any abnormal findings. Relative organ weights
were similar for pigs from each regimen. At
no time during the course of the trials was
there any indication of toxicity, reduced appetite or impaired growth from the inclusion
of creatine in the diet.
Muscle creatine data presented in table 3
indicate a slight increase in concentration and
total muscle creatine in those pigs receiving
dietary creatine, however, neither the increase
in size nor creatine content of muscle was
statistically significant. Furthermore, dietary
creatine precursors (arginine and glycine)
were likewise ineffective in increasing muscle
creatine.
Results obtained in this study indicate
that creatine supplemented to a 30% casein
diet is largely excreted by the baby pig and
does not increase muscle creatine content or
growth. Failure of dietary creatine to increase
muscle creatine can be well explained by the
recent work of Walker (1960, 1961), Fitch
et al. (1960) and Coleman (1961) showing
a marked repression of mouse kidney transamidinase or chick and duck liver transamidinase activity when either creatine or
guanidoacetate is included in the diet. As a
consequence, creatine biosynthesis is depressed
when an exogenous source of creatine is available. Van Pilsum (1961) has expressed the
belief that creatine competes with glycine for
attachment on the site of transamidinase
synthesis. Walker (1960, 1961) and Fitch
et al. (1960) have explained the reduction
of transamidinase activity as resulting from
a feedback mechanism since there is no
MILLER, ET AL.
460
TABLE 3. MUSCLE SIZE AND CREATINE
CONTENT
Regimen
creatine or, creatinine. The supplemental creafine precursors, arginine and glycine, apparently were not utilized in creatine biosynthesis.
Argini~e
+
Item
No. of pigs
Control
Creatine
2
2
glycine
2
Bodyweight
(kg.)
10.1 -+- 1.9
10.7 •
10.1 + 0.8
Muscle
weight
(gin.) ~
48.2-+- 5.0
56.1 __+1.3
46.3 ~ 3.8
Muscle
creatine b
Total
muscle
creatine
(rag.)
3.02+ 0.24
146.7 +26.8
3.11__+0.10 2.90~ 0.12
174.7 ___9.2 135.0 ~16.3
a Right superficial digital flexor and gastrocnemius muscles,
fresh tissue weight.
b Milligrams per gram of fresh tissue.
enzyme activity reduction when creatinine replaces creatine in the diet. The addition of the
amino acid precursors of guanidoacetate, arginine and glycine, to a diet already adequate
in the amino acids as in the present study
does not appear to influence the rate of creafine biosynthesis. Baker et al. (1961) have
obtained similar results when creatine precursors were administered intraperitoneally
to pigs nursing their dams. The two studies
indicate that in the baby pig creatine biosynthesis is largely unaffected by supplemental creatine precursors whether supplied
parenterally or in the diet.
Summary
Twenty-four baby pigs receiving a synthetic milk diet containing 30% casein were
utilized to determine if the inclusion of 0.2%
creatine monohydrate or an equimolar amount
of the creatine precursors, arginine and glycine, would improve growth rate, muscle size
and creafine content. Neither of these regimens was effective in improving any of these
criteria. Dietary creatine which was absorbed
appeared to be largely excreted as urinary
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Baron, H. 1958. Some effects of DL-methionine and
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Coleman, D. L. 1961. Effects of dietary creatine and
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