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A Comparative Study of the Specific Dynamic Action of the Amino-Acids Alanine and Glycine¹

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Department of Physiology, Creighton University School of Medicine, Omaha, Nebraska

A series of fifty-one experiments performed in three independent laboratories have been reviewed. Forty-two of these experiments appear to be comparable and have been subjected to a detailed analysis. It has been found that when the specific dynamic actions of alanine and glycine are expressed as calories per millimol of amino-acid deaminized, the values are practically identical if animals are on approximately the same nutritional level. The average value for the specific dynamic action per millimol of amino-acid deaminized in these forty-one experiments was 0.20 calorie. The average of eight experiments in which alanine was employed gave a value of 0.19 calorie per millimol deaminized, while thirty-four experiments with glycine gave an average value of 0.20 calorie. This close agreement of the values when expressed as calories of specific dynamic action per millimol of aminoacid deaminized was obtained with dogs ranging in weight from 6.9 to 18.2 kilos and when amounts of amino-acid ranging between 3.69 gm. of glycine and 30 gm. of alanine, which gave total specific dynamic action of from 5 to 34 calories. The amino-acids were given orally in eleven experiments and intravenously in thirty-one experiments.

This analysis shows clearly that comparable results can be obtained in different laboratories employing different methods, different sized dogs and widely different quantities of amino-acids, provided that the dietary and environmental conditions of the animals are approximately the same.

Manuscript received 15 June 1933.