Short-term dynamics in protein and amino acid metabolism.

Actual amounts of free amino acids in the blood are sufficient to support whole body protein synthesis for some minutes only. This indicates that the levels of free amino acids in the circulation are kept small and constant relative to the amounts of amino acids supplied by daily intake and turnover of body proteins. The clearance of the amino acids originating from either endogenous or exogenous sources is mainly due to protein synthesis and metabolic degradation. The partitioning of dietary amino acids between these processes, on the short term, is supposed to play an important role in whole body amino acid economy. Therefore whole body amino acid economy could be improved by nutritional measures that favour the clearance of dietary amino acids by protein synthesis instead of by metabolic degradation. These nutritional measures should to be focused on threshold values for metabolic degradation of individual amino acids.