Abstract: | Experiments on cats and rats have established that critical conditions caused by acute hemorrhage, hepatotoxin, and hepatectomy lead to ammonia accumulation in the brain and liver due to the predominance of decay of glutamine over its formation in these organs. With this, the depressed formation of glutamine is a universal cell response to a pathogenic agent whereas a change in glutamine deamination in disease depends on both the nature of a pathogenic agent and the organ wherein this reaction occurs. |