Ketone bodies are any molecules of ketone or carboxylic nature that are formed in the liver from acetyl-CoA. Usually, ketone bodies should not be high in the blood, but an increase in ketone allows acetone to pass the urinary barrier in the kidneys and be found in the urine, indicating a pathological process in the body. Classically, ketone bodies include three molecules that have metabolic effects on the body and take their origin in the mitochondrial matrix of liver cells: acetone, acetoacetate, and beta-hydroxybutyrate, a salt of beta-hydroxybutyric acid.
Normally, the animal’s body is able to maintain homeostasis on its own and adapt to changes in order to increase its chances of survival. However, as a result of metabolic dysfunction, acidosis – a state of increased acidity of liquid body tissues (blood, urine) due to dysfunctional regulation of acid ions – can be realized. The study involved dogs that acquired the diagnosis of acidosis after an infusion of ammonium chloride into them.
This is not surprising since this infusion led to a decrease in ammonia in the urine, which means that there was a decrease in ammonia-like substances in the body, i.e., the number of alkaline molecules decreased. Thus, the increase in acidity was mediated not by an increase in acid-like substances but by a decrease in alkaline substances. On the other hand, the dissociation of ammonium chloride in liquid organisms would lead to the formation of hydrochloric acid molecules, which would also add to the overall decrease in acidity. However, most of the metabolic changes are not related to the retention of carbon dioxide in the blood and lungs, so this type of acidosis should be explicitly considered metabolic and not respiratory.
Finally, the significant decrease in urinary ammonia concentration initiated by ketone body infusion was associated with the suppression of ammonia genesis in the kidneys. Since ketone bodies inhibit the release of ammonium cations in the renal tubules, less ammonia was detected in the urine due to the intensification of alpha-ketoglutarate formation. However, no effect on the total pH in the urine was found since the changes were realized directly, locally in the kidneys.