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1 Institute of Food, Nutrition and Human Health and
2 Riddet Centre, Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand
Corresponding author: S. M. Rutherfurd; e-mail: S.M.Rutherfurd{at}massey.ac.nz.
| ABSTRACT |
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Key Words: lysine milk availability digestibility
Abbreviation key: EHC = enzymatically hydrolyzed casein.
| INTRODUCTION |
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| MATERIALS AND METHODS |
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2000 Da. Centriprep YM-3 disposable ultrafiltration devices (with a 3000-Da MW cutoff) were obtained from Amicon, Inc. (Beverly, MA). Laboratory rats were obtained from the Small Animal Production Unit, Massey University (Palmerston North, New Zealand).
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Digestibility Study
A total of 60 male Sprague-Dawley rats, approximately 150 g BW, were housed individually in stainless steel wire-bottomed cages in a room maintained at 22 ± 2°C, with a 12-h light-dark cycle. Twelve semisynthetic test diets were formulated (Table 2
) to each contain 100 g/kg of CP. An enzymatically hydrolyzed casein (EHC)-based diet was also formulated (Table 2
) to allow determination of endogenous ileal lysine flows (Moughan et al., 1990; Butts et al., 1991). Chromic oxide was included (0.3%) in each diet as an indigestible marker. All diets met the nutritional requirements for the growing rat with the exception of protein (National Research Council, 1995). The animals were randomly allocated to the dietary treatments and were fed the diets for a 14-d experimental period. On each day, each rat received its respective diet as 9 meals given hourly (0830 to 1630 h); each mealtime consisted of a 10-min period during which the rats had unrestricted access to their diet. Water was available at all times. On the final day of the study, from 5.5 to 7 h after the start of feeding, the rats were asphyxiated in carbon dioxide gas and then decapitated. The 20 cm of ileum immediately anterior to the ileo-cecal junction was dissected out. The dissected ileum was washed with distilled, deionized water to remove any blood and hair, and carefully dried on absorbent paper. The digesta were gently flushed from the ileum section and freeze-dried ready for chemical analysis. The digesta of rats fed the EHC diet were adjusted to approximately pH 3 with 6 M HCl to minimize protease activity. The EHC digesta were centrifuged and ultrafiltered (3000 Da) and then freeze-dried in preparation for analysis (Butts et al., 1991).
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Chemical Analysis
Amino acid contents were determined in duplicate 5-mg protein source and digesta samples and quadruplicate 5-mg semisynthetic diet samples using a Waters ion-exchange HPLC system, utilizing postcolumn ninhydrin derivatization and detection using absorbance at 570 and 440 nm, following hydrolysis in 6 M glass-distilled HCl containing 0.1% phenol for 24 h at 110 ± 2°C in evacuated sealed tubes. Cysteine, methionine, and tryptophan were not determined, as they are destroyed during acid hydrolysis. The weight of each AA was calculated using free amino acid molecular weights.
Reactive lysine contents were determined in duplicate 5-mg protein source and digesta samples and quadruplicate 5-mg diet samples after incubation for 1, 7, and 7 d, respectively, in 0.6 M O-methylisourea, pH 10.6 (pH 11.0 for the digesta samples), at 21°C in a shaking waterbath, with the reagent to lysine ratio being >1000, according to the procedure of Moughan and Rutherfurd (1996). The 0.6 M O-methylisourea solution was prepared as described by Moughan and Rutherfurd (1996). After incubation, the samples were dried using a Speedvac concentrator (Savant Instruments, Inc., Farmingdale, NY) and analyzed for AA content as described previously.
The chromium contents of the diet and ileal digesta samples were determined in duplicate on a GBC 902 AA absorption/emission spectrophotometer (GBC Scientific NZ Ltd, Auckland, New Zealand) following the method of Costigan and Ellis (1987).
Data Analysis
Ileal total and ileal endogenous (EHC diet) AA flows at the terminal ileum were calculated using the following equation (units are µg/g of DMI):
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True ileal AA digestibility was calculated using the following equation (units are µg/g of DMI):
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True ileal reactive lysine digestibility was calculated using the following equation (units are µg/g of DMI):
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The AA digestibility data were subjected to a one-way ANOVA for each amino acid singly (GLM procedure; SAS, 1999).
| RESULTS |
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2.2%. For the other products, total lysine overestimated reactive lysine from 3.8% for the weight gain formula to as much as 23% for evaporated milk.
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Digestible total lysine (conventional analysis) and digestible reactive lysine (available lysine) contents are shown in Table 5
. True ileal digestible total lysine was statistically significantly different from true ileal digestible reactive lysine (available lysine) for all of the milk protein products tested with the exception of the high-protein supplement. For the whole milk protein, whey protein concentrate, UHT milk, evaporated milk, weight gain formula, sports formula, and lactose-hydrolyzed milk powder, conventional analysis (digestible total lysine) overestimated digestible reactive lysine; for the infant formulas and elderly formula, conventional analysis underestimated digestible reactive lysine. For infant formula B, UHT milk, weight gain formula, and elderly formula, the difference between digestible total lysine and digestible reactive lysine was <3%. For the other milk protein products, where statistically significant differences were observed, these differences ranged from 3.2 to 13.9% but were on average approximately 4.7%.
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| DISCUSSION |
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Comparison of Total Lysine and Reactive Lysine Contents for 12 High-Quality Protein Sources
There was a high degree of variation among protein sources for agreement between the total lysine and reactive lysine contents. For some protein sources (the infant formulas A and C, elderly formula, and high-protein supplement), there was close agreement. In contrast, for sources such as whole milk powder, evaporated milk, and lactose-hydrolyzed milk powder, total lysine overestimated reactive lysine by
10%, suggesting the presence of labile lysine derivatives (Maillard products).
It is possible that during the guanidination reaction there is incomplete conversion of lysine to homoarginine, and that the determined reactive lysine values underestimate lysine content. This is unlikely, however, given that conversion of lysine to homoarginine in lysozyme (for which the lysine content is known), which was included in the present study as a quality control, was in excess of 98%. At high pH, the formation of lysinoalanine may also compete with the guanidination reaction for reactive lysine. However, based on studies investigating the formation of lysinoalanine in casein at high pH (Karayiannis et al., 1979), only a maximum of about 2.5% of the reactive lysine will convert to lysinoalanine after a 6-h incubation under the guanidination conditions used here. Furthermore, given that as much as 95% of guanidination is complete in a soluble protein in the first 8 h of incubation (Rutherfurd and Moughan, unpublished data), the actual amounts of lysinoalanine formed during guanidination are likely to be much lower than 2.5% and only a negligible error.
It is apparent that some purified high-protein products, marketed on the basis of high-protein quality, have structural lysine damage during manufacture and storage, and for these products, the traditional total lysine determination overestimates available lysine.
Comparison of True Ileal Reactive Lysine Digestibility and Conventional Total Lysine Digestibility
For all protein sources, true ileal total lysine digestibility was significantly (P < 0.05) lower than true ileal reactive lysine digestibility. However, for many of the protein sources tested, including whole milk protein, whey protein concentrate, UHT milk, weight gain formula, elderly formula, sports formula, high-protein supplement, and lactose-hydrolyzed milk powder, the numerical difference between true ileal total and reactive digestibility was small (<3%) and of little practical relevance. This suggests the presence of minimal amounts of acid-labile lysine derivatives, and for these particular samples, both the conventional true ileal AA digestibility assay and the new true ileal reactive lysine digestibility assay were suitable methods for determining lysine digestibility. For the infant formulas and evaporated milk, however, the difference between true ileal total and reactive lysine digestibility was >3% and as high as 7%. For these protein sources, the new assay provides more meaningful estimates of lysine availability.
It has been appreciated for some time that the conventional true ileal lysine digestibility assay overestimates lysine availability in processed feedstuffs (Batterham et al., 1990). In the present study, the digestible total lysine content was statistically significantly different from the digestible reactive lysine content for all protein sources except the high-protein supplement. Ultimately, and in relation to nutrition, it is the digestible lysine content that is of importance. For several of the protein sources (infant formula B, UHT milk, weight gain formula, and elderly formula), the actual difference between the digestible total lysine and available lysine (digestible reactive lysine) contents was small (<3%). For whole milk protein, whey protein concentrate, evaporated milk, sports formula, and lactose-hydrolyzed milk powder; the overestimation of available lysine by digestible lysine ranged from 3.2% (whey protein concentrate) to 14% (evaporated milk).
It would appear that even for purified dairy-based protein sources, such as those tested in this study, the traditional true ileal total lysine assay does not always accurately predict available lysine content. The true ileal reactive lysine digestibility assay described here measures the uptake from the small intestine of structurally unaltered lysine molecules and provides more accurate estimates of available lysine.
The True Ileal Digestibility of Acid-Stable AA in Protein Sources Determined Following Traditional AA Analysis or After Guanidination of the Protein
Although the newly developed digestible reactive lysine assay can be used to determine available lysine with accuracy (Rutherfurd et al., 1997), it would be useful if the other acid-stable AA could also be determined with the same procedure. To this end, a statistical comparison was conducted of the mean true ileal AA digestibility determined using either conventional AA analysis or AA analysis following guanidination. Arginine was not examined, as it coeluted with a very large ammonia peak. For most (61%) of the acid-stable AA, there were no significant differences (P > 0.05) between methods, and for a further 19% of the AA studied, the difference between means, although significant statistically, was <3% and arguably not meaningful in practical terms. For the remaining 20% of AA tested, the new method did not predict ileal digestibility accurately compared with the conventional method. Histidine was the AA that showed the greatest absolute differences between the 2 methods for most protein products; tyrosine showed the least difference.
It appears that the digestible reactive lysine assay can be used to determine available lysine without affecting the estimation of the majority of the acid-stable AA.
Amino Acid Quality of the Milk-Based Products
All the milk-based products tested were highly digestible. This is consistent with other milk products that have been tested in our laboratory, such as sodium and calcium caseinate, milk protein isolate,
-lactalbumin, lactic casein, and whey protein concentrates (Rutherfurd and Moughan, 1998). The most poorly digested AA was glycine, with a true ileal digestibility for the 12 milk products ranging from 33 to 87% and a mean digestibility of 70%. The most highly digestible AA was tyrosine, with a digestibility ranging from 92 to 102% and a mean digestibility of 98%. The digestibility of a few of the AA was slightly >100%, reflecting complete digestion and absorption of these AA. Experimental error explains the overestimate in digestibility. The infant formulas tended to have the lowest AA digestibility, with mean true AA digestibility for the formulas ranging from 81 to 84% for the acid-stable AA (apart from lysine) tested. The cause of the relatively low digestibility is unknown but should be investigated further
The gross reactive lysine content of the milk products ranged from 9.5 to 78.6 mg/g. This variation is largely due to the inclusion level of milk proteins into the products. The digestibility of reactive lysine was similar to the digestibility values obtained for most of the other AA and ranged from 91 to 100%. As was the case with the acid-stable AA, the digestibility of reactive lysine tended to be lowest in the infant formulas. The UHT milk was the most digestible protein source in terms of reactive lysine.
| CONCLUSIONS |
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It would appear in general that milk provides a highly digestible protein source for inclusion into other foods.
| FOOTNOTES |
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Received for publication March 14, 2004. Accepted for publication August 23, 2004.
| REFERENCES |
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