The rise of blood ammonia following a short period of exercise can be partially prevented by the prior oral administration of either aspartic acid or the mixed potassium and magnesium salts of aspartic acid. These compounds will also prolong the time required for the rat to reach physical exhaustion due to forced swimming. As an extension of these observations, it has been found that daily feeding of ammonium carbonate over a 4-week period will also prevent the rise of blood ammonia due to exercise and will prolong exhaustion time of rats that are forced to swim. These same changes have been observed in rats that were exercised daily by short periods of forced swimming and, after 3 weeks of this type of physical training, were tested for blood ammonia response to exercise and time required for exhaustion. It is concluded that both daily ammonium carbonate feeding and training result in adaptation of enzymes in the ornithine cycle so as to increase the rate of blood ammonia removal.
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Barnes et al. (1964) studied this question.