scholarly journals Effect of food intake on hind-limb and whole-body protein metabolism in young growing sheep: chronic studies based on arterio-venous techniques

1992 ◽  
Vol 68 (2) ◽  
pp. 389-407 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patricia M. Harris ◽  
Pat A. Skene ◽  
Vivien Buchan ◽  
E. Milne ◽  
A. G. Calder ◽  
...  

Whole-body protein synthesis, estimated by the irreversible loss rate procedure, and hind-leg protein metabolism determined by arterio-venous techniques were monitored in response to three nutritional conditions (approximately 0.6, 12 and 1.8 x energy maintenance (M)) in ten wether lambs (33 kg average live weight). In all lambs and treatments measurements were based on radiolabelled phenylalanine, but the terminal procedures (five at 0.6 x M and five at 1.8 x M) also included infusion of [1-13C]leucine; this permitted comparison of amino acids catabolized (leucine) and non-metabolized (phenylalanine) by the hind-limb tissues. Whole-body protein synthesis increased with intake and the relationship with energy expenditure was slightly lower than that reported previously for pigs and cattle. The efficiency of protein retention: protein synthesis did not exceed 0.25 between the two intake extremes. Effects of intake on amino acid oxidation were similar to those observed for cattle. Hind-limb protein synthesis also increased significantly (P < 0.001) in response to intake. Estimates of protein gain, from net uptake values, indicated that the tissues made a greater proportional contribution to total protein retention above M and to protein loss below M, emphasizing the role played by muscle tissue in providing mobile protein stores. The rates of protein synthesis calculated depended on the selection of precursor (blood) metabolite, but rates based on leucine always exceeded those based on phenylalanine when precursor from the same pool was selected. The incremental efficiency of protein retained: protein synthesis was apparently unity between 0.6 and 1.2 x M but 0.3 from 1.2 to 1.8 x M. Blood flow through the iliac artery was also proportional to intake. Leucine and oxo-acid catabolism to carbon dioxide increased with intake such that the metabolic fate of the amino acid was distributed in the proportion 2:1 between protein gain and oxidation. The rates of oxidation were only 1–3% the reported capacity of the rate-limiting dehydrogenase enzyme in muscle, but sufficient enzyme activity resides in the hind-limb adipose tissue to account for such catabolism

Author(s):  
Jorn Trommelen ◽  
Andrew M. Holwerda ◽  
Philippe J. M. Pinckaers ◽  
Luc J. C. van Loon

All human tissues are in a constant state of remodelling, regulated by the balance between tissue protein synthesis and breakdown rates. It has been well-established that protein ingestion stimulates skeletal muscle and whole-body protein synthesis. Stable isotope-labelled amino acid methodologies are commonly applied to assess the various aspects of protein metabolism in vivo in human subjects. However, to achieve a more comprehensive assessment of post-prandial protein handling in vivo in human subjects, intravenous stable isotope-labelled amino acid infusions can be combined with the ingestion of intrinsically labelled protein and the collection of blood and muscle tissue samples. The combined application of ingesting intrinsically labelled protein with continuous intravenous stable isotope-labelled amino acid infusion allows the simultaneous assessment of protein digestion and amino acid absorption kinetics (e.g. release of dietary protein-derived amino acids into the circulation), whole-body protein metabolism (whole-body protein synthesis, breakdown and oxidation rates and net protein balance) and skeletal muscle metabolism (muscle protein fractional synthesis rates and dietary protein-derived amino acid incorporation into muscle protein). The purpose of this review is to provide an overview of the various aspects of post-prandial protein handling and metabolism with a focus on insights obtained from studies that have applied intrinsically labelled protein under a variety of conditions in different populations.


1997 ◽  
Vol 77 (6) ◽  
pp. 885-896 ◽  
Author(s):  
Isabelle Papet ◽  
Piotr Ostaszewski ◽  
Francoise Glomot ◽  
Christiane Obled ◽  
Magali Faure ◽  
...  

AbstractThe effect of a high dose of 3-hydroxy-3-methylbutyrate (HMB, a leucine catabolite) on protein metabolism was investigated in growing male lambs fed on hay and concentrate. Concentrate was supplemented with either Ca(HMB)2 (4g/kg) or Ca(C03)2 in experimental (HMB) and control groups respectively. Both groups consisted of six 2-month old lambs. Three complementary methods to study protein metabolism were carried out consecutively 2·5 months after beginning the dietary treatment: whole body phenylalanine fluxes, postprandial plasma free amino acid time course and fractional rates of protein synthesis in skeletal muscles. Feeding a high dose of HMB led to a significant increase in some plasma free amino acids compared with controls. Total, oxidative and non-oxidative phenylalanine fluxes were not modified by dietary HMB supplementation. Similarly, an acute infusion of HMB, in the control group, did not change these fluxes. In skeletal muscles, fractional rates of protein synthesis were not affected by long-term dietary supplementation with HMB. Taken together our results showed that administration of a high dose of HMB to lambs was able to modify plasma free amino acid pattern without any effect on whole-body protein turnover and skeletal muscle protein synthesis


1987 ◽  
Vol 58 (3) ◽  
pp. 437-452 ◽  
Author(s):  
V. H. Oddy ◽  
D. B. Lindsay ◽  
P. J. Barker ◽  
A. J. Northrop

1. A combination of isotope-dilution and arterio-venous difference techniques was used to determine rates of leucine metabolism and protein synthesis and degradation in a hind-limb preparation (predominantly muscle) and the whole body of eight lambs fed on milk to appetite and eight lambs fasted from 24 to 48 h.2. Compared with fed lambs, fasted lambs showed decreased rates of protein synthesis in both whole body and hind-limb, and in hind-limb muscle, elevated rates of protein degradation.3. The effects of two rates of insulin infusion on whole-body and hind-limb-muscle leucine metabolism, and in turn on protein metabolism, were determined. Insulin had no significant effect on leucine flux or oxidation (and hence protein synthesis and degradation) in whole-body or hind-limb muscle of fed lambs. In fasted lambs insulin progressively reduced arterial leucine concentration and whole-body leucine flux and oxidation, indicating a reduction in both protein synthesis and degradation. Insulin reduced the rate of leucine efflux from hind-limb muscle, which was followed by a reduction in leucine uptake. Insulin increased hind-limb-muscle glucose uptake in both fed and fasted lambs.4. On the basis that hind-limb muscle was representative of skeletal muscle in general, we estimated that muscle accounted for the same percentage (about 27) of whole-body protein synthesis in both fed and fasted lambs. This percentage was unaffected by infusion of insulin, although the absolute rates differed in fed and fasted lambs.


1999 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 25-54 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. C Waterlow

AbstractThe first part of this review is concerned with the balance between N input and output as urinary urea. I start with some observations on classical biochemical studies of the operation of the urea cycle. According to Krebs, the cycle is instantaneous and automatic, as a result of the irreversibility of the first enzyme, carbamoyl-phosphate synthetase 1 (EC 6.3.5.5; CPS-I), and it should be able to handle many times the normal input to the cycle. It is now generally agreed that acetyl glutamate is a necessary co-factor for CPS-1, but not a regulator. There is abundant evidence that changes in dietary protein supply induce coordinated changes in the amounts of all five urea-cycle enzymes. How this coordination is achieved, and why it should be necessary in view of the properties of the cycle mentioned above, is unknown. At the physiological level it is not clear how a change in protein intake is translated into a change of urea cycle activity. It is very unlikely that the signal is an alteration in the plasma concentration either of total amino-N or of any single amino acid. The immediate substrates of the urea cycle are NH3 and aspartate, but there have been no measurements of their concentration in the liver in relation to urea production. Measurements of urea kinetics have shown that in many cases urea production exceeds N intake, and it is only through transfer of some of the urea produced to the colon, where it is hydrolysed to NH3, that it is possible to achieve N balance. It is beginning to look as if this process is regulated, possibly through the operation of recently discovered urea transporters in the kidney and colon. The second part of the review deals with the synthesis and breakdown of protein. The evidence on whole-body protein turnover under a variety of conditions strongly suggests that the components of turnover, including amino acid oxidation, are influenced and perhaps regulated by amino acid supply or amino acid concentration, with insulin playing an important but secondary role. Molecular biology has provided a great deal of information about the complex processes of protein synthesis and breakdown, but so far has nothing to say about how they are coordinated so that in the steady state they are equal. A simple hypothesis is proposed to fill this gap, based on the self-evident fact that for two processes to be coordinated they must have some factor in common. This common factor is the amino acid pool, which provides the substrates for synthesis and represents the products of breakdown. The review concludes that although the achievement and maintenance of N balance is a fact of life that we tend to take for granted, there are many features of it that are not understood, principally the control of urea production and excretion to match the intake, and the coordination of protein synthesis and breakdown to maintain a relatively constant lean body mass.


1996 ◽  
Vol 63 (2) ◽  
pp. 209-222 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian J. Bequette ◽  
John A. Metcalf ◽  
Diane Wray-Cahen ◽  
F. R. Colette Backwell ◽  
John D. Sutton ◽  
...  

SummaryMammary gland protein metabolism, determined by an arteriovenous difference technique, was monitored in four Holstein-Friesian dairy cows in response to supplemental dietary protein (provided as rumen-protected soyabean meal) during late lactation (weeks 24–30). Each cow was offered two isoenergetic diets composed of grass silage (170 g crude protein/kg dry matter) plus either a low (108 g/kg) or medium (151 g/kg) crude protein concentrate in a single crossover design involving two 21 d periods. On day 21, arteriovenous measurements across the mammary gland were made during a 13 h continuous i.v. infusion of [1-13C]leucine and with frequent (2 hourly) milk sampling during the final 6 h. Although total milk yield was slightly increased (+1 kg/d) by protein supplementation, milk protein yield was not significantly affected. Whole body protein flux (protein synthesis plus oxidation) was not significantly affected by supplementation. Total mammary gland protein synthesis (milk plus non-milk protein) was also not affected by supplementation but on both diets gland synthesis was always greater (by 20–59%) than milk protein output. The fractional oxidation rate of leucine by the mammary gland was significantly increased by protein supplementation (0·047 v. 0·136). Although the enrichment of leucine in secreted milk protein continued to increase, the final value (at 13 h) was 0·94 of the arterial plasma free leucine plateau value (not significantly different), suggesting almost exclusive use of plasma free leucine for milk protein synthesis. Based on current feeding schemes for dairy cattle, a fixed proportion (0·65–0·75) of the additional protein intake (+490 g/d) should have been partitioned into milk protein. Instead, leucine oxidation by the mammary gland was increased. Whether oxidation of other amino acids was also enhanced is unknown but if amino acid oxidation and the ‘additional’ non-milk protein synthesis occurring in the gland are not crucial to milk synthesis, then by reducing such activities improvements in the efficiency of converting absorbed amino acid into milk protein can be achieved.


2000 ◽  
Vol 279 (5) ◽  
pp. E978-E988 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul G. Whittaker ◽  
Choy H. Lee ◽  
Roy Taylor

The effects of pregnancy and type 1 diabetes [insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM)] on protein metabolism are still uncertain. Therefore, six normal and five IDDM women were studied during and after pregnancy, using [13C]leucine and [2H5]phenylalanine with a hyperinsulinemic-euglycemic clamp and amino acid infusion. Fasting total plasma amino acids were lower in pregnancy in normal but not IDDM women (2,631 ± 427 vs. 2,057 ± 471 and 2,523 ± 430 vs. 2,500 ± 440 μmol/l, respectively). Whole body protein breakdown (leucine) increased in pregnancy [change in normal (ΔN) and IDDM women (ΔD) 0.59 ± 0.40 and 0.48 ± 0.26 g · kg−1 · day−1, both P < 0.001], whereas reductions in protein breakdown due to insulin/amino acids (ΔN −0.57 ± 0.19, ΔD −0.58 ± 0.20 g · kg−1 · day−1, both P < 0.001) were unaffected by pregnancy. Protein breakdown in IDDM women was not higher than normal, and neither pregnancy nor type 1 diabetes altered the insulin sensitivity of amino acid turnover. Nonoxidized leucine disposal (protein synthesis) increased in pregnancy (ΔN 0.67 ± 0.45, ΔD 0.64 ± 0.34 g · kg−1 · day−1, both P < 0.001). Pregnancy reduced the response of phenylalanine hydroxylation to insulin/amino acids in both groups (ΔN −1.14 ± 0.74, ΔD −1.12 ± 0.77 g · kg−1 · day−1, both P < 0.05). These alterations may enable amino acid conservation for protein synthesis and accretion in late pregnancy. Well-controlled type 1 diabetes caused no abnormalities in the regulation of basal or stimulated protein metabolism.


1996 ◽  
Vol 135 (1) ◽  
pp. 7-18 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pierpaolo De Feo

De Feo P. Hormonal regulation of human protein metabolism. Eur J Endocrinol 1996:135:7–18. ISSN 0804–4643 This review focuses on the effects of hormones on protein kinetics in humans. Most of the recent knowledge on the regulation of protein metabolism in humans has been obtained by tracing protein kinetics in vivo, using labelled isotopes of essential or non-essential amino acids. This technique allows the rates of the whole-body protein synthesis and breakdown to be estimated together with amino acid oxidation and the fractional synthetic rates of mixed muscle proteins or of single plasma proteins. Changes induced within these parameters by hormonal administration or endocrine diseases are also discussed. Hormones, on the basis of their net effect on protein balance (protein synthesis minus protein breakdown), are divided into two categories: those provided with an anabolic action and those with a prevalent catabolic action. The effects on protein metabolism of the following hormones are reviewed: insulin, growth hormone, IGF-I, adrenaline, androgens, estrogens, progesterone, glucagon, glucocorticosteroids, thyroid hormones. The review concludes with a report on the effects of multiple hormonal infusions on whole-body protein kinetics and a discussion on the potential role played by the concomitant increase of several hormones in the pathogenesis of protein wasting that complicates stress diseases. Pierpaolo De Feo, DIMISEM, Via E. Dal Pozzo, 06126 Perugia, Italy


1999 ◽  
Vol 58 (4) ◽  
pp. 987-1000 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anton J. M. Wagenmakers

Three tracer methods have been used to measure protein synthesis, protein breakdown and protein oxidation at whole-body level. The method using L-[1-13C]leucine is considered the method of reference. These methods have contributed greatly to the existing knowledge on whole-body protein turnover and its regulation by feeding, fasting, hormones and disease. How exercise and ingestion of mixed protein-containing meals affect whole-body protein metabolism is still open to debate, as there are discrepancies in results obtained with different tracers. The contribution of whole-body methods to the future gain of knowledge is expected to be limited due to the fact that most physiological disturbances have been investigated extensively, and due to the lack of information on the relative contribution of various tissues and proteins to whole-body changes. Tracer amino acid-incorporation methods are most suited to investigate these latter aspects of protein metabolism. These methods have shown that some tissues (liver and gut) have much higher turnover rates and deposit much more protein than others (muscle). Massive differences also exist between the fractional synthesis rates of individual proteins. The incorporation methods have been properly validated, although minor disagreements remain on the identity of the true precursor pool (the enrichment of which should be used in the calculations). Arterio-venous organ balance studies have shown that little protein is deposited in skeletal muscle following a protein-containing meal, while much more protein is deposited in liver and gut. The amount deposited in the feeding period in each of these tissues is released again during overnight fasting. The addition of tracers to organ balance studies allows the simultaneous estimation of protein synthesis and protein breakdown, and provides information on whether changes in net protein balance are caused primarily by a change in protein synthesis or in protein breakdown. In the case of a small arterio-venous difference in a tissue with a high blood flow, estimates of protein synthesis and breakdown become very uncertain, limiting the value of using the tracer. An additional measurement of the intracellular free amino acid pool enrichment allows a correction for amino acid recycling and quantification of the inward and outward transmembrane transport. However, in order to obtain reliable estimates of the intramuscular amino acid enrichment and, therefore, of muscle protein synthesis and breakdown in this so-called three-pool model, the muscle should be freeze-dried and the resulting fibres should be freed from connective tissue and small blood clots under a dissection microscope. Even when optimal precautions are taken, the calculations in these tracer balance methods use multiple variables and, therefore, are bound to lead to more variability in estimates of protein synthesis than the tracer amino acid incorporation methods. In the future, most studies should focus on the measurement of protein synthesis and breakdown in specific proteins in order to understand the mechanisms behind tissue adaptation in response to various stimuli (feeding, fasting, exercise, trauma, sepsis, disuse and disease). The tracer laboratories, therefore, should improve the methodology to allow the measurement of low tracer amino acid enrichments in small amounts of protein.


1993 ◽  
Vol 265 (3) ◽  
pp. E402-E413 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Tesseraud ◽  
J. Grizard ◽  
E. Debras ◽  
I. Papet ◽  
Y. Bonnet ◽  
...  

Early lactating goats show insulin resistance with respect to extramammary glucose utilization. However, much less is known about the two major factors, insulin and plasma amino acid concentration, that regulate protein metabolism in lactating goats. To examine this question, the in vivo effect of acute insulin was studied in goats during early lactation (12-31 days postpartum), midlactation (98-143 days postpartum), and the dry period (approximately 1 yr postpartum). Insulin was infused (at 0.36 or 1.79 nmol/min) under euglycemic and eukaliemic clamps. In addition, appropriate amino acid infusion was used to blunt insulin-induced hypoaminoacidemia or to create hyperaminoacidemia and maintain this condition under insulin treatment. Leucine kinetics were assessed using a primed continuous infusion of L-[1-14C]-leucine, which started 2.5 h before insulin. In all animals the insulin treatments failed to stimulate the nonoxidative leucine disposal (an estimate of whole body protein synthesis) under both euaminoacidemic and hyperaminoacidemic conditions. Thus, in goat as well as humans, infusion of insulin fails to stimulate protein synthesis even when combined with a substantially increased provision of amino acids. In contrast, insulin treatments caused a dose-dependent inhibition of the endogenous leucine appearance (an estimate of whole body protein degradation). Under euaminoacidemia the initial slope from the plot of the endogenous leucine appearance as a function of plasma insulin (an insulin sensitivity index) was steeper during early lactation than when compared with the dry period. A similar trend occurred during midlactation but not to any significant degree. These differences were abolished under hyperaminoacidemia. It was concluded that the ability of physiological insulin to inhibit protein degradation was improved during lactation, demonstrating a clear-cut dissociation between the effects of insulin on protein and glucose metabolism. This adaptation no doubt may provide a mechanism to save body protein.


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