Effects of [15N]leucine infused at low rates on leucine metabolism in humans.

The present studies were carried out to determine whether infusions of [15N]leucine at low rates affect estimates of leucine oxidation and of proteolysis and protein synthesis in humans. Three groups of normal subjects were infused for 3 h with either [15N]leucine at a rate of 0.16 or 0.26 μmol · kg-1 · min-1 or saline using [2H3]leucine and α-[14C]ketoisocaproate as isotopic tracers of leucine metabolism. Data were analyzed at steady state using both single- and dual-isotope models. Preliminary studies were carried out to characterize the dual-isotope model in humans using infusions of [3H]leucine and α-[14C]ketoisocaproate. In the postabsorptive state estimates of leucine appearance, disappearance, and oxidation derived from the two isotope models were in good agreement. Infusion of stable isotope trace up to ~10% of the leucine carbon flux had no significant effect on estimates of whole-body proteolysis, protein synthesis, or leucine oxidation. However, at a rate approximating 15% of the leucine carbon flux, leucine oxidation was increased. When subjects were infused with [15N]leucine, the dual-isotope model underestimated the increase in leucine oxidation and the rate of leucine transamination to α-ketoisocaproate calculated from the single-isotope data. Infusion rates of stable isotopes of leucine below 10% of the leucine carbon flux do not have a significant effect on leucine metabolism, but that data derived from such studies must be properly controlled and interpreted with care because these tracers are not massless.