Protein conversion to glucose: an evaluation of the quantitative aspects.

The amount of glucose that can be synthesized from a protein depends on its amino acid (AA) composition. This value is about 60 g from 100 g of liver or muscle protein and is based on a knowledge of the total AA content and the proportion of each AA that can be converted to pyruvate. The maximum quantity of glucose in grams that can be synthesized from administered AA solutions is the sum of the products of the number of moles of each AA times its percent convertible to pyruvate times the molecular weight of that AA.