Summary of workshop discussions on establishing upper limits for amino acids with specific attention to available data for the essential amino acids leucine and tryptophan.

The morning of the first day of the 8th Amino Acid Assessment Workshop was organized and co-sponsored by the International Council on Amino Acid Science (ICAAS) and the International Life Sciences Institute Research Foundation and was focused on the International Life Sciences Institute Research Foundation's approach to establishing upper limits of nutrients. The remainder of d 1 and all of d 2 were focused on the safety of leucine and tryptophan, with special emphasis on determining the upper level of the safe range of intake. It was recognized that some toxicological frameworks, mainly the key-events dose response framework, might be applicable to amino acids and provide appropriate assistance to regulators in establishing upper limits for amino acids as a group of nutrients used in dietary supplements. ICAAS-funded projects for determining the upper intake limits for the essential amino acid leucine provided the main pool of leucine data discussed at the workshop. The acute clinical study suggests 500 mg/(kg · d) as a possible upper limit for leucine in healthy humans, but the safety margin needed to widen this limit to the general population has not been determined. For tryptophan, the workshop participants found less ground for consensus. Older efficacy studies suggested that tryptophan at 8-15 g/d was well tolerated, but human research was abruptly terminated in the late 1980s and no new data are available. Animal results obtained in pigs and rodents were discussed and 2 possible strategies for applying those outcomes to humans were described.