title: Novel metabolic and physiological functions of branched chain amino acids: a review.
abstract: It is widely known that branched chain amino acids (BCAA) are not only elementary components for building muscle tissue but also participate in increasing protein synthesis in animals and humans. BCAA (isoleucine, leucine and valine) regulate many key signaling pathways, the most classic of which is the activation of the mTOR signaling pathway. This signaling pathway connects many diverse physiological and metabolic roles. Recent years have witnessed many striking developments in determining the novel functions of BCAA including: (1) Insufficient or excessive levels of BCAA in the diet enhances lipolysis. (2) BCAA, especially isoleucine, play a major role in enhancing glucose consumption and utilization by up-regulating intestinal and muscular glucose transporters. (3) Supplementation of leucine in the diet enhances meat quality in finishing pigs. (4) BCAA are beneficial for mammary health, milk quality and embryo growth. (5) BCAA enhance intestinal development, intestinal amino acid transportation and mucin production. (6) BCAA participate in up-regulating innate and adaptive immune responses. In addition, abnormally elevated BCAA levels in the blood (decreased BCAA catabolism) are a good biomarker for the early detection of obesity, diabetes and other metabolic diseases. This review will provide some insights into these novel metabolic and physiological functions of BCAA.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Animal Nutrition, College of Animal Science and Technology, China Agricultural University, No.2 Yuanmingyuan West Road, Haidian District, Beijing, 100193 People's Republic of China.|College of Animal Science, South China Agricultural University, Wushan Avenue, Tianhe District, Guangzhou, 510642 People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Shihai
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Animal Nutrition, College of Animal Science and Technology, China Agricultural University, No.2 Yuanmingyuan West Road, Haidian District, Beijing, 100193 People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Xiangfang
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zeng
authors.affiliation: College of Animal Science, Anhui Science & Technology University, No. 9 Donghua Road, Fengyang, 233100 Anhui Province People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Man
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ren
authors.affiliation: Animal Nutrition Institute, Key Laboratory of Animal Disease-ResistanceNutrition,Ministry of Education, Sichuan AgriculturalUniversity, Ya'an, Sichuan China.
authors.forename: Xiangbing
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Mao
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Animal Nutrition, College of Animal Science and Technology, China Agricultural University, No.2 Yuanmingyuan West Road, Haidian District, Beijing, 100193 People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Shiyan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Qiao
keywords: Amino acid transporters; Glucose transporters; Gut health; Immunity; Lipolysis; Mammary health; Meat quality; Milk production