Effect of feed intake on amino acid transfers across the ovine hindquarters

Responses in variables of amino acid (AA) metabolism across peripheral tissues to feed intake were studied in six sheep (mean live weight 32 kg) prepared with arterio-venous catheters across the hindquarters. Four intakes (0.5, 1.0, 1.5 and 2.5 x maintenance energy) were offered over 2-week periods to each sheep in a Latin square design with two animals replicated. Animals were infused intravenously with a mixture of U-13C-labelled AA for 10 h and integrated blood samples withdrawn from the aorta and vena cava hourly between 5 and 9 h of infusion. Biopsy samples were also taken from skin and m. vastus lateralis. Data from both essential (histidine, isoleucine, leucine, lysine, phenylalanine, threonine) and nonessential (glycine, proline, serine, tyrosine) AA were modelled to give rates of inward and outward transport, protein synthesis and degradation, plus the fraction of total vascular inflow that exchanged with the hindquarter tissues. Rates of inward transport varied more than 10-fold between AA. For all essential AA (plus serine), inward transport increased with food intake (P