2018 Volume 35 Pages 28-33
Several researchers suggested that magnesium (Mg) deficiency induces metabolic disturbance in the liver. Skeletal muscle is an important organ for metabolism such as glucose and amino acids, and skeletal muscle is one of the organs affected by Mg deficiency. Because Mg deficiency is known to decrease feed intake, some researches adopted a pair-feeding control diet. However, restricted feeding changes feed-intake pattern, i.e., rapid and large consumption of feed just after feeding, which probably affect many metabolisms. In the present experiment, we determined low-molecular-weight and hydrophilic metabolite concentrations by non-targeted semi-quantitative analysis with GC-MS/MS in skeletal muscle of ovariectomized (OVX) rats because OVX induces hyperphagia and Mg deficiency is unlikely to induce the reduction of feed intake in OVX rats. Although Mg deficiency did not affect feed intake, body weight gain and feed efficiency were decreased in the Mg-deficient rats. One hundred and twenty-one metabolites were identified in the gastrocnemius muscle, in which 15 metabolite concentrations were affected by Mg deficiency. An enrichment analysis showed that Mg deficiency affected pentose phosphate pathway, purine metabolism, and pantothenic acid and CoA biogenesis. These results suggest that Mg deficiency disturbs these metabolisms in the skeletal muscle, which may be one of pathogenesis of Mg-deficient diseases.
