Abstract
Rearing rats on low- and high-protein diets yielded no difference in the level of hepatic ammonia while urea production was assessed at a higher level in the high-protein diet group. The appearance of a large number of ammonia-producing nonsporeforming anaerobic bacteria in the jejunum of the rats reared on a high-protein diet seems to imply that the hepatic urea cycle was stimulated by the bacteria enhancing the generative reaction from ammonia to urea. These results are significant when viewed as the probable indication of the integral ecological function of intestinal flora in the homeostatic regulation mechanism, taking the regulation of the urea cycle as one example.
