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Nitrogen-stimulated Orotic Acid Synthesis and Nucleotide Imbalance¹

University of Illinois, College of Medicine, Urbana, Illinois 61801

Orotic acid, first discovered in ruminant milk, is an intermediate in the pyrimidine biosynthesis pathway of animal cells. Its synthesis is initiated by the formation of carbamoyl phosphate (CP) in the cytoplasm, with ammonia derived from glutamine. Ureotelic species also form CP in the first step of urea synthesis in liver mitochondria. For that, ammonia is derived from tissue fluid. When there is insufficient capacity for detoxifying the load of ammonia presented for urea synthesis, CP leaves the mitochondria and enters the pyrimidine pathway, where orotic acid biosynthesis is stimulated, orotic acid excretion in urine then increases. Orotic acid synthesis is abnormally high with hereditary deficiencies of urea-cycle enzymes or uridine monophosphate synthase. It is also elevated by ammonia intoxication and during feeding of diets high in protein, high in lysine with respect to arginine, or deficient in arginine, ornithine, and citrulline. Rats fed 1% orotic acid or diets deficient in urea-cycle amino acids develop fatty livers, which has not been demonstrated in other species. Humans consuming 6 g of orotic acid daily have not shown adverse effects. Rats fed 1% orotic acid or arginine-deficient diets also showed more and larger foci positive for -glutamyl transpeptidase and more liver tumors after administration of carcinogens and partial hepatectomy. Orotic acid feeding was also associated with the tendency for development of larger mammary tumors induced by chemical carcinogens in rats and with development of urinary bladder calculi containing high concentrations of orotic acid in mice. Conditions that raise tissue orotic acid change purine-pyrimidine ratios. It is unknown whether tissue orotate concentrations play a role in the recently observed enhanced proliferation of cells in the colon of rats fed high-protein, high-fat diets or in the promotion of chemically induced colon cancer by intrarectal administration of ammonium acetate.