[Changes in amino acid concentrations in plasma after oral ingestion of oligopeptides and analogous amino acid mixtures].

To what extent an oligopeptide mixture differs in equimolar dosage from an equivalent amino acid mixture after oral intake was tested on 11 subjects. The plotted course and absolute order of magnitude of the two mixtures revealed no differentiation in the total amino acid concentration of the peripheral blood plasma. The same was true of the individual free amino acids in the plasma. The only difference was found in the graphic representation of the maximum amino acid concentration of the individual test subjects, which was usually reached at an earlier date with oligopeptides than with free amino acids. The difference is even more obvious in the portal vein, as is shown in a test series not yet completed, where the plasma amino acid concentration increased at a clearly earlier date after oligopeptide substitution than after the supply of the equivalent amino acid mixture.