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Amino acid requirements in humans: with a special emphasis on the metabolic availability of amino acids

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Abstract

Due to advances made in the development of stable isotope based carbon oxidation methods, the determination of amino acid requirements in humans has been an active area of research for the past 2 decades. The indicator amino acid oxidation (IAAO) method developed in our laboratory for humans has been systematically applied to determine almost all indispensable amino acid requirements in adult humans. Nutritional application of experimentally derived amino acid requirement estimates depends upon the capacity of food proteins to meet the amino acid requirements in humans. Therefore, there is a need to know the proportion of dietary amino acids which are bioavailable, or metabolically available to the body for protein synthesis following digestion and absorption. Although this concept is widely applied in animal nutrition, it has not been applied to human nutrition due to lack of data. We developed a new in vivo method in growing pigs to identify the metabolic availability of amino acids in foods using the IAAO concept. This metabolic availability method has recently been adapted for use in humans. As this newly developed IAAO based method to determine metabolic availability of amino acids in foods is suitable for rapid and routine analysis in humans, it is a major step forward in defining the protein quality of food sources and integrating amino acid requirement data with dietary amino acid availability of foods.

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Abbreviations

BCAA:

Branched chain amino acids

DAAO:

Direct amino acid oxidation

DRI:

Dietary reference intakes

EAR:

Estimated average requirement

IAAO:

Indicator amino acid oxidation

IDAA:

Indispensable amino acids

MA:

Metabolic availability

NPU:

Net protein utilization

NPPU:

Net postprandial protein utilization

PDCAAS:

Protein digestibility-corrected amino acid score

PER:

Protein efficiency ratio

RDA:

Recommended dietary allowance

SAA:

Sulfur amino acids

TD:

True digestibility

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Acknowledgments

Supported by the Canadian Institutes for Health Research (grant # MOP 10321 and FRN 12928).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Research Institute, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, ON, Canada

    Rajavel Elango, Ronald O. Ball & Paul B. Pencharz

  2. Department of Nutritional Sciences, University of Toronto, ON, Canada

    Rajavel Elango, Ronald O. Ball & Paul B. Pencharz

  3. Department of Paediatrics, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada

    Paul B. Pencharz

  4. Department of Agricultural, Food and Nutritional Science, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada

    Ronald O. Ball & Paul B. Pencharz

  5. Division of Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition, The Hospital for Sick Children, 555 University Avenue, Toronto, ON, M5G 1X8, Canada

    Paul B. Pencharz

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  1. Rajavel Elango
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  2. Ronald O. Ball
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Correspondence to Paul B. Pencharz.

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Elango, R., Ball, R.O. & Pencharz, P.B. Amino acid requirements in humans: with a special emphasis on the metabolic availability of amino acids. Amino Acids 37, 19–27 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00726-009-0234-y

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