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The Enhancement of the Nutritive Value of Wheat Gluten by Supplementation with Lysine, as Determined from Nitrogen Balance Indices in Human Subjects^1,2,

One Figure

The Hektoen Institute for Medical Research of Cook County Hospital and The Department of Physiology, University of Illinois Medical School, Chicago

In 10 hospital patients, most of whom had recognizable protein deficiency, a comparison was made of the nutritive value of wheat gluten alone and of the same product reinforced with 4% L-lysine.

The nitrogen balance index method, utilized by Allison in dogs, was found applicable to these human subjects. The nitrogen balance index, whether determined from the straight line curves drawn from multiple points or from only two points, tended to be constant for the particular protein preparation, whereas the nitrogen requirement for nitrogen equilibrium was more variable.

The mean nitrogen balance index for gluten was 0.62. For gluten plus lysine, it was significantly higher, 0.76, approaching the value for casein. Thus lysine was shown to enhance the nutritive value of gluten for humans, as it had previously been shown to do for lower animals.

In patients with chronic protein deficiency even unreinforced gluten was found to be capable of producing positive nitrogen balances with moderate intakes.

² Presented before the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology, March 18, 1948.

Manuscript received 25 February 1949.