Creatine Synthesis Is a Major Metabolic Process in Neonatal Piglets and Has Important Implications for Amino Acid Metabolism and Methyl Balance

Our objectives in this study were as follows: 1) to determine the rate of creatine accretion by the neonatal piglet; 2) identify the sources of this creatine; 3) measure the activities of the enzymes of creatine synthesis; and 4) to estimate the burden that endogenous creatine synthesis places on the metabolism of the 3 amino acids required for this synthesis: glycine, arginine, and methionine. We found that piglets acquire 12.5 mmol of total creatine (creatine plus creatine phosphate) between 4 and 11 d of age. As much as one-quarter of creatine accretion in neonatal piglets may be provided by sow milk and three-quarters by de novo synthesis by piglets. This rate of creatine synthesis makes very large demands on arginine and methionine metabolism, although the magnitude of the demand depends on the rate of remethylation of homocysteine and of reamidination of ornithine. Of the 2 enzymes of creatine synthesis, we found high activity Of L-arginine:glycine amidinotransferase in piglet kidneys and pancreas and of guanidinoacetate methyltransferase in piglet livers. Piglet livers also had appreciable activities of methionine adenosyltransferase, which synthesizes S-adenosylmethionine, and of betaine:homocysteine methyltransferase, methionine synthase, and methylene tetra hydrofolate reductase, which are required for the remethylation of homocysteine to methionine. Creatine synthesis is a quantitatively major metabolic process in piglets. J. Nutr. 139: 1292-1297, 2009.