T he utility of amino acids in medicine today continues to be explored via clinical research and applications. Amino acids have several roles in the body; as the building blocks of protein, amino acids are found throughout the body. Muscle is by far the most proteinand amino acid–rich tissue in the body.1 Health care practitioners are gaining more knowledge about amino acids, including their me...

Anautogenous mosquitoes depend on vertebrate blood as nutrient source for their eggs. A highly efficient set of membrane transporters mediates the massive movement of nutrient amino acids between mosquito tissues after a blood meal. Here we report the characterization of the amino-acid transporter Slimfast (Slif) from the yellow-fever mosquito Aedes aegypti using codon-optimized heterologous ex...

Animals rely on their diet for amino acids that they are incapable either of synthesizing or of synthesizing in sufficient quantities to meet metabolic needs. These are the so-called 'essential amino acids'. This set of amino acids is similar among the vertebrates and many of the invertebrates. Previously, no information was available for amino acid synthesis by the most primitive invertebrates...

The essentiality of certain amino acids and certain fatty acids was established for growing rats at about the same time. W.C. Rose at the University of Illinois in the early 1930’s identified 10 essential dietary amino acids for rats. Soon thereafter, these same essential dietary amino acids were confirmed experimentally in growing nonruminant livestock. The fatty acids, linoleic acid (C18:2) a...

The intracellular concentrations of essential amino acids (EAA) in muscle are maintained relatively constant under a variety of conditions. However, the effect of a decrease in blood amino acid concentrations on intracellular concentrations is not clear. Similarly, the relation between intracellular and interstitial concentrations has not been determined in this circumstance. Thus the aim of th...

Branched-chain amino acids (BCAAs) are essential amino acids for humans and are major building blocks of proteins. Recent studies indicate that BCAAs act not only as components of proteins, but also as nutrasignals. In this review, we summarize the findings of recent studies investigating the physiological functions of BCAAs in the regulation of protein and glucose metabolism and brain function.