Associations between dietary amino acid intakes and blood concentration levels

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Documents

  • Isabel Iguacel
  • Julie A Schmidt
  • Aurora Perez-Cornago
  • Heleen Van Puyvelde
  • Ruth Travis
  • Magdalena Stepien
  • Augustin Scalbert
  • Corinne Casagrande
  • Elisabete Weiderpass
  • Elio Riboli
  • Matthias B Schulze
  • Guri Skeie
  • Stina Bodén
  • Heiner Boeing
  • Amanda J Cross
  • Sophia Harlid
  • Torill Enget Jensen
  • José M Huerta
  • Verena Katzke
  • Tilman Kühn
  • Leila Lujan-Barroso
  • Giovanna Masala
  • Miguel Rodriguez-Barranco
  • Yvonne T van der Schouw
  • Roel Vermeulen
  • Giovanna Tagliabue
  • Morena Trevisan
  • Pietro Ferrari
  • Marc J Gunter
  • Inge Huybrechts

Background and aims: Emerging evidence suggests a role of amino acids (AAs) in the development of various diseases including renal failure, liver cirrhosis, diabetes and cancer. However, mechanistic pathways and the effects of dietary AA intakes on circulating levels and disease outcomes are unclear. We aimed to compare protein and AA intakes, with their respective blood concentrations in the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) cohort. 

Methods: Dietary protein and AA intakes were assessed via the EPIC dietary questionnaires (DQ) and 24-h dietary recalls (24-HDR). A subsample of 3768 EPIC participants who were free of cancer had blood AA concentrations measured. To investigate how circulating levels relate to their respective intakes, dietary AA intake was examined in quintiles and ANOVA tests were run. Pearson correlations were examined for continous associations between intakes and blood concentrations. 

Results: Dietary AA intakes (assessed with the DQ) and blood AA concentrations were not strongly correlated (−0.15 ≤ r ≤ 0.17) and the direction of the correlations depended on AA class: weak positive correlations were found for most essential AAs (isoleucine, leucine, lysine, methionine, threonine, tryptophan, and valine) and conditionally essential AAs (arginine and tyrosine), while negative associations were found for non-essential AAs. Similar results were found when using the 24-HDR. When conducting ANOVA tests for essential AAs, higher intake quintiles were linked to higher blood AA concentrations, except for histidine and phenylalanine. For non-essential AAs and glycine, an inverse relationship was observed. Conditionally-essential AAs showed mixed results. 

Conclusions: Weak positive correlations and dose responses were found between most essential and conditionally essential AA intakes, and blood concentrations, but not for the non-essential AAs. These results suggest that intake of dietary AA might be related to physiological AA status, particularly for the essential AAs. However, these results should be further evaluated and confirmed in large-scale prospective studies.

Original languageEnglish
JournalClinical Nutrition
Volume40
Issue number6
Pages (from-to)3772-3779
Number of pages8
ISSN0261-5614
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2021

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2021

    Research areas

  • 24-H dietary recall, Amino acids, Blood levels, Dietary intake, Dietary questionnaire

ID: 273637319