The importance of transmethylation reactions to methionine metabolism in sheep: effects of supplementation with creatine and choline.

The influence of administering the methylated products choline and creatine on methionine irreversible-loss rate (ILR) and recycling from homocysteine has been investigated in sheep fed close to energy and N equilibrium. Two methods to estimate methionine recycling were compared. The first involved [U-13C]methionine infused as part of a labelled amino acid mixture obtained from hydrolysed algal protein. In this approach the isotope dilution of methionine with all five C atoms labelled (m + 5) will represent the ILR which does not recycle through homocysteine, while that which includes molecules with C-1-C-4 labelled will allow for loss of the labelled methyl (5)-C atom and replacement by an unlabelled moiety in the remethylation of homocysteine. The second method involved a combined infusion of [1-13C]- and [S-methyl-2H3]methionine. These two approaches gave similar data for methionine ILR which does not include label recycled to the amino acid from homocysteine but differed for recycled methionine fluxes. Consequently the two procedures differed in the calculated extent of homocysteine methylation under control conditions (6 v. 28%). These extents of remethylation are within the range observed for the fed human subject, despite the fact that fewer dietary methyl groups are available for the ruminant. Using combined data from the infusions, significant depression of methionine recycling occurred in blood (P < 0.05), with a similar trend for plasma (P = 0.077), when choline plus creatine were infused. Wool growth, assessed by intradermal injection of [35S]cysteine, was not altered by supplementation with the methylated products. From changes in the label pattern of free methionine in aortal, hepatic portal and hepatic venous blood during U-13C-labelled algal hydrolysate infusion, the major sites of homocysteine remethylation appear to be the portal-drained viscera and the liver. This was confirmed by analysis of free methionine enrichments in various tissues following dual infusion of [1-13C]- and [S-methyl-2H3]methionine, with the greatest activities occurring in rumen, jejunum and liver. Of the non-splanchnic tissues examined, only kidney exhibited substantial methionine cycling; none was detected in muscle, heart, lung and skin. The implications of methyl group provision under net production conditions are discussed.