Amino acid flooding doses for measuring rates of protein synthesis

Summary The development, advantages and disadvantages of using the amino acid flooding dose technique to determinein vivo rates of protein synthesis are examined in this review. A discussion of the use of this procedure in animals greater than 5 kg is included. The flooding dose procedure reduces the disparity between isotope enrichment in different amino acid precursor pools, which should theoretically improve the precision and accuracy of protein synthesis measurements. However, the possibility must be considered that the large doses of amino acids injected or infused in conjunction with this technique may influence protein turnover due to attendant metabolic effects. Therefore, a judicious choice of an amino acid and an evaluation of the experimental parameters involved in this procedure are required to optimize the accuracy of results obtained.Scientific Paper No. 710. Agriculture Canada, Lacombe Research Station, Bag Service 5000, Lacombe, Alberta T0C 1S0.