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Background:
Dietary protein and amino acid intake and composition can modulateimmune function.
Objectives:
To evaluate the effects of high-protein intake and arginine and ornithinesupplementation on feline immune cells.
Animals:
Ten healthy cats.
Methods:
Experimental study. Cats received a high-protein basal diet as a single dailymeal. A crossover design was applied with treatments being basal diet (w/o); basaldiet with arginine supplementation (+50, 75, 100% compared to the arginine provi-sion by the basal diet; Arg 1-3); and basal diet with ornithine supplementation (+100,150, 200% compared to the arginine provision by the basal diet; Orn 1-3). Bloodsamples were collected at the end of each 11-day treatment period.
Results:
Mitogen-stimulated proliferative activity of blood leukocytes revealed a qua-dratic effect for the dietary supplementation of arginine (P = .02) and ornithine(P = .03) (means for ConA-stimulation: w/o = 6.96; Arg 1 = 9.31; Arg 2 = 11.4; Arg3 = 8.04; Orn 1 = 15.4; Orn 2 = 9.43; Orn 3 = 9.28; pooled SEM: 0.96). The number(% gated) of phagocytic granulocytes linearly decreased with increasing dietary con-centrations of arginine (P = .05) and ornithine (P = .03) (means: w/o = 95.5; Arg1 = 93.0; Arg 2 = 92.5; Arg 3 = 92.6; Orn 1 = 92.6; Orn 2 = 92.6; Orn 3 = 91.5;pooled SEM = 0.44).
Conclusions and Clinical Importance:
This study could demonstrate immunomodu-lating properties of dietary arginine and ornithine in cats.