QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced] Author: Keyword(s): Year:  Vol:  Page:

This Article Full Text (PDF) Purchase Article View Shopping Cart Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Kohrs, M. B. Articles by Harper, A. E. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Kohrs, M. B. Articles by Harper, A. E.

Serum Amino Acids during Gestation of Rhesus Monkeys Fed Two Different Levels of Protein^1,2,

Human Nutrition Research Program, Lincoln University, Jefferson City, Missouri 65101; Departments of Nutritional Sciences and Pediatrics, The Regional Primate Research Center, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin 53706

Female rhesus monkeys were fed a closed formula, purified control diet (2.2 g protein per kg body weight) or a low protein diet (0.5 g protein per kg) during pregnancy. Samples of venous blood drawn before conception, on days 50, 100 and 150 after conception, and 7 and 30 days postpartum were analyzed for serum free amino acids. The total free amino acid level in control animals fell progressively on days 50 and 100 but returned to the preconception level by day 150. Animals fed the low protein diet showed the same trend in the total amino acid concentrations during early pregnancy but the increase at 150 days did not reach preconception values. Serum total indispensable amino acids of monkeys fed the low protein diet were significantly less on day 100 than before conception. Six of eight indispensable amino acids in serum changed significantly during gestation of those fed the low protein diet compared to one serum amino acid of the controls. The plasma dispensable to indispensable ratio of amino acids did not change significantly throughout pregnancy in control animals whereas it had increased significantly by day 100 and remained elevated at day 150 in monkeys fed the low protein diet. The ratio was significantly different for control and low protein animals on day 150. The results suggest that changes in serum amino acids are potentially useful as indicators of protein nutriture during pregnancy.

KEY WORDS: • serum amino acids • pregnancy • protein intake • rhesus monkeys

¹ Presented in part at the annual meeting of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology, Atlantic City, New Jersey, April, 1973, Federation Proc. 32, 702 (Abstract).

² Manuscript No. 53-1:416 from Human Nutrition Research Program, Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Lincoln University, Jefferson City, Missouri 65101.

³ Supported in part by grants from the National Institutes of Health (FR00167 to the Wisconsin Regional Primate Research Center, Madison, Wisconsin, and AM 10747 and U.S.D.A. CSRS Grant 416-15-10 to Lincoln University, Jefferson City, Missouri 65101).

⁴ Current address: Assistant Professor of Human Nutrition, Human Nutrition Research Laboratory, Lincoln University, Jefferson City, Missouri 65101.

⁵ Current address: Associate Professor of Nutrition, Department of Nutrition, Harvard School of Public Health, 665 Huntington Avenue, Boston, Massachusetts 02115.

⁶ Current address: Professor of Nutritional Sciences and Biochemistry, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin 53706.

Manuscript received 14 March 1977.