The Importance Of Leucine Protein Synthesis

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What are Leucine and BCAA’S ? Leucine, also known as 2-amino-4-methylpentanoic acid, along with isoleucine and valine are the three branched chained amino acids (BCAA’S). (Homes HC,et al(1995),(Yeh YY(1984) These three amino acids are essential amino acids (EAA’S) meaning that they do not self produce and these must be got from our diet from protein sources or through supplementation. BCAA’s contribute 35% of EAA’S in muscle protein and 40% of the preformed Amino Acids required by mammals and they can be oxidized in the skeletal muscle whereas other EAAs are catabolised in the liver. (Shimomura et al., 2004) Leucine can be consumed as a supplement on its own or else it can be taken in a BCAA supplement containing all three amino acids. Leucine …show more content…

The process of translation is a major part of protein synthesis. There are many different components related the process of protein synthesis which include the large ribosomal unit, 60S and the small ribosomal unit,40S. As well as these are the messenger RNA, “mRNA coding”, transfer RNA , tRNA for amino acids and finally greater than 12 of the catalytic proteins which have be found to be eIFs (eukaryotic initiation factors). (Norton and Layman, 2006)These initiation factors are quite important in relation to Protein Synthesis and translation initiation. ...“These initiation factors guide the assembly of the ribosome on the mRNA and are responsive to short-term changes in the availability of energy, amino acids, and growth factors. Initiation factors provide the cell with sensitivity to environmental factors, including changes in diet, such as leucine availability, and physical activity.”... As well as this they also enable the cell to become sensitive to factors like the availability of …show more content…

Katsanos et al. Wolfe conducted experiments in which they compared the effects of EAA’S being whey protein, low concentration of Leucine and one with a high content of Leucine on both elderly and young subjects . In their studies they were able to show that leucine played a role in muscle protein synthesis in the elderly humans by stimulating the process more than the whey protein. (Rieu et al., 2006) For the younger subjects both the whey protein supplement and the enriched Leucine supplement increased muscle protein synthesis. In both cases when comparing the different concentration of Leucine, the supplement with the higher Leucine content resulted in an increase in muscle protein synthesis. This experiment showed the importance of having a high content of EAA’S within BCAA supplement as if there are less EAA’S there will be a lower content of Leucine therefore reducing the amount of muscle protein synthesis and

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