Essential amino acid ingestion as an efficient nutritional strategy for the preservation of muscle mass following gastric bypass surgery

Abstract

Loss of skeletal muscle in patients that have undergone gastric bypass is a consistent observation. Skeletal muscle constitutes the largest protein/amino acid pool in the body, and loss of skeletal muscle has important implications in health and disease. Sustaining a given level of muscle protein requires a balance between the rates of muscle protein synthesis and breakdown. Current evidence suggests that reduced rate of protein synthesis is implicated in the loss of muscle after gastric bypass. This is not surprising given a less than optimal dietary protein intake following the gastric bypass and because, unlike other macronutrients, protein/amino acids are not stored in the body. Ingesting essential amino acids, which cannot be synthesized de novo and have the primary role in the regulation of muscle protein synthesis, can potentially ameliorate loss of muscle protein after gastric bypass. At the same time, ingestion of essential amino acids provides a more efficient nutritional approach (i.e., greater stimulation of protein synthesis relative to the amount of amino acids ingested) to enhance muscle protein synthesis compared to the ingestion of intact protein in the gastric bypass patient. Changing current dietary practices towards increasing ingestion of essential amino acids provides an approach that can potentially prevent loss of lean body tissue and ultimately achieve a more sustained level of health in patients that have undergone gastric bypass.

Assessment of Protein Intake in the First Three Months after Sleeve Gastrectomy in Patients with Severe Obesity

“…In this study, we confirmed that protein intake from natural foods is well below the recommended levels in the large majority of patients in the first three months after SG. This was accompanied by a low intake of the essential BCAAs, leucine in particular, that are considered particularly important for protein synthesis [6].…”

“…Essential AAs cannot be synthesized de novo by the body and must be introduced through the diet. Among these, branched-chain amino acids (BCAAs), leucine in particular, are characterized by the greater effect of the stimulation of protein synthesis [6].…”

Changes in the free amino acids and the biogenic amine contents during lactic acid fermentation of different lupin species

“…Essential amino acids play important roles in the body; for example, histidine helps in the removal of excess metals from the body, and it stimulates the synthesis of collagen, which is the main extracellular structural protein in the various connective tissues of animals (Villacrés et al ., ), and can be emphasised in the nutritional strategy to prevent the loss of muscle mass after gastric bypass surgery (Katsanos et al ., ). Threonine and isoleucine are frequently found in the active centres of enzymes (Cárdenas, ).…”

Body composition changes after left gastric artery embolization in overweight and obese individuals

“…Comparison data for the effect of LGAE or bariatric interventions on CT body composition are limited at present. However, it is well-established that significant muscle mass loss is common after weight loss procedures [15,16]. Maimoun and colleagues investigated body composition changes 1 month after sleeve gastrectomy using dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry [17].…”