[Metabolism-oriented determination of amino-acid requirement by means of catabolic rates of 14C- and 15N-labelled lysine under maintenance].

Male Wistar rats (of 60 g live weight) allotted in 10 groups were fed diets with gradually increasing lysine levels ranging from 1.4 to 7.4 g lysine/16 g N. Feed intake was restricted so much that the experimental animals did not change their live weights during the last 3 days of the 8-day experiment period. On the 7th experimental day, 4 animals of each group were injected i.p. 14-C-L-lysine, the 14CO2-excretion being subsequently measured over a period of 2 hours. On the next day, 6 animals of each group were applied an i.p. injected of 15N-L-lysine, the urine being collected over the following 24-hour period to measure the 15N-frequency. Applying both labelling methods, an increased catabolisation of the amino acid was observed after the metabolically necessary lysine requirement had been covered. The methods are very sensitive and revealed, under the experimental conditions chosed, a lysine requirement coverage of about 3 g lysine/16 g N. The possibility of using also 15N-labelled compounds in the metabolism-oriented amino acid requirement determination is likely to facilitate the transfer of the methodology to farm animals and would thus allow to study the amino acid requirement of man. The metabolism-oriented amino acid requirement determination will likewise allow to estimate exact amino acid requirement data under conditions that cannot be rated on the basis of productive yields.