The adaptation in musle oxidation of leucine to dietary protein and energy intake

Abstract

1. Female hooded rats (65g) were maintained on a high-protein (HP) or low-protein (LP) diet for 2 weeks (ratio, energy supplied by utilizable protein: total metabolizable energy 10 and 3.5 respectively) and the oxidation of both L- and DL-[1-¹⁴C]leucine in vivo was measured in the fed and fasted animal.2. Oxidation of leucine in vivo was reduced in the animals given the LP diet. Fasting caused an increase in the oxidation of the branched-chain amino acids.3. Leucine-α-oxoglutarate transaminase (EC2.6.1.6) and α-ketoisocaproic acid dehydrogenase were measured in both liver and gastrocnemius muscle from rats fed on the HP or LP diet. Enzymes were also assayed after a 48 h fast in a group of animals previously maintained on the HP diet.4. The LP diet led to a fall in muscle dehydrogenase activity without any alterations in liver enzyme activity. Fasting also reduced muscle dehydrogenase activity but increased liver dehydrogenase activity.5. The presence of a dehydrogenase in muscle and its ability to adapt to dietary stress at a time when the liver enzyme is unaffected suggests that muscle is the most important site for control of leucine oxidation.6. Transaminase activity in muscle rose in the LP and fasted animals but the activity in liver was unchanged.7. Oxidation, incorporation into protein of [U-¹⁴C]leucine and the pool sizes of free leucine in plasma and in the extensor digitorum longus muscles were measured. The rats were maintained under the feeding conditions described above. The ability of incubated muscles to incorporate [¹⁴C]leucine into protein in both the fasted animals and those fed on the LP diet was reduced. Oxidation of leucine in muscle was reduced in protein deficiency but there was little change in the evolution of¹⁴CO₂from [U-¹⁴C]leucine on fasting.8. The increase in pool size of free leucine in fasted animals is probably important in determining its rate of oxidation in muscle, as¹⁴CO₂production was maintained despite falling activities of the dehydrogenase enzyme activity. The muscle enzyme accounted for 90% of the calculated body capacity for oxidation; activity in liver is insufficient to deal with normal rates of oxidation. Muscle enzyme is normally in excess of that required for the oxidation of branched-chain amino acids.