Plasma and muscle free amino acids in uremia: influence of nutrition with amino acids
Alvestrand, A.; Fürst, P.; Bergström, J.
Clinical Nephrology 18(6): 297-305
1982
ISSN/ISBN: 0301-0430 PMID: 7151348 Document Number: 184370
Untreated uraemic patients show grossly abnormal amino acid patterns with low concentrations of threonine, valine, tyrosine and lysine in muscle and plasma and low plasma concentrations of isoleucine, leucine and phenylalanine. Patients who had been treated for more than 10 weeks with a low-protein diet, providing 16 to 20 g protein daily (LPD), supplemented with an essential amino acid preparation which contained 2 to 3 times the minimum requirements for normal man + histidine, still had valine concentrations in plasma and muscle which were 40 to 45% lower and still showed the abnormal distribution of leucine and isoleucine with low plasma and normal muscle concentrations. The muscle concentration of tyrosine was decreased by 45%, whereas the plasma concentration was normal. In 8 patients treated during on average 115 days with LPD supplemented with a new amino acid formula, with a higher proportion of valine and with the addition of tyrosine, the depletion of valine in plasma and muscle was completely corrected but the intracellular tyrosine concentration was not fully restored to normal.