Amino acid nutrition: a two-step absorptive process.

A linkage between intestinal and tissue absorption of amino acids was perceived by Donald D. Van Slyke and Gustave M. Meyer in 1913, but soon overlooked by later authors. Today, on the 110th anniversary of Van Slyke's birth and the 80th anniversary of publication of their now-classic paper in the Journal of Biological Chemistry, the observation gains in nutritional significance and tells us, incidentally, why we should not dose ourselves with an isolated amino acid.