Journal of Nutrition

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Journal of Nutrition Vol. 108 No. 12 December 1978, pp. 1877-1882
Copyright © 1978 by American Society for Nutrition
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Effect of Dietary Protein on Urinary Excretion of 3-Methylhistidine in Rat

Per T. Omstedt, Reinhold Kihlberg, Per Tingvall and Alan Shenkin1

Vitrum Institute for Human Nutrition, Stockholm, Sweden

The excretion of the amino acid 3-methylhistidine in urine has been shown to be correlated with protein catabolism in skeletal muscle. In rats, 3-methylhistidine is partly acetylated (N-acetyl-3-methylhistidine) and it has been proposed that the relative amounts of 3-methylhistidine and N-acetyl-3-methylhistidine in urine is age dependent. In this experiment, the effect of dietary protein quality on urine excretion of 3-methylhistidine and N-acetyl-3-methylhistidine was studied. Six groups of rats (mean weight 80 g) were fed diets containing 10% protein of different quality, the net protein utilization ranging from 76.7 for egg albumin to 28.9 for wheat gluten. The excretion of non-acetylated 3-methylhistidine was not dependent on the diet. There was, however, a good correlation between protein quality and total urine 3-methylhistidine (3-methylhistidine plus N-acetyl-3-methylhistidine), the higher the protein quality, the greater being the excretion of total 3-methylhistidine. The relative amounts of 3-methylhistidine and N-acetyl-3-methylhistidine correlated with the mean body weight, but not the age, of the animals. This study therefore demonstrates that a relationship exists between the nutritive quality of the dietary protein and the urinary excretion of 3-methylhistidine in rats.

KEY WORDS: • skeletal muscle • 3-methylhistidine • protein quality

1 Dept. of Biochemistry, Royal Infirmary, Glasgow, Scotland.

Manuscript received 25 January 1978.




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