Amine Metabolism Is Influenced by Dietary Protein Source.

Soumya K Kar,Alfons J M Jansman,Mari A Smits,Jerry M Wells,Dirkjan Schokker,Leo Kruijt,Amy C Harms

doi:10.3389/fnut.2017.00041

Abstract

Growth in world population will inevitably leads to increased demand for protein for humans and animals. Protein from insects and blood plasma are being considered as possible alternatives, but more research on their nutritional quality and health effects is needed. Here, we studied the effect of dietary protein source on metabolism and metabolic amine profiles in serum and urine of mice. Groups of mice were fed semi-purified diets containing 300 g/kg of soybean meal, casein, partially delactosed whey powder, spray-dried plasma protein, wheat gluten meal, and yellow mealworm. Feed and water intake as well as body weight gain were measured for 28 days. After 14 and 28 days, serum and urine samples were collected for measurement of a large panel of amine metabolites. MetaboAnalyst 3.0 was used for analysis of the raw metabolic data. Out of 68 targeted amine metabolites, we could detect 54 in urine and 41 in blood serum. Dietary protein sources were found to have profound effects on host metabolism, particularly in systemic amine profiles, considered here as an endophenotype. We recommend serum over urine to screen for the amine metabolic endophenotype based on partial least squares discriminant analysis. We concluded that metabolites like alpha-aminobutyric acid and 1-methylhistidine are sensitive indicators of too much or too little availability of specific amino acids in the different protein diets. Furthermore, we concluded that amine metabolic profiles can be useful for assessing the nutritional quality of different protein sources.

Highlights

If growth in the human population and food production continue at their present rate, there will be more than two billion more people to feed in 2050 and calorific deficiencies are likely to be more prevalent than they are today
We show that the inclusion of different protein sources in the diets lead to the appearance of specific amine metabolite profiles in the serum and urine of mice
Differences in these metabolic endophenotypes were most pronounced for the yellow mealworm (YMW)- and delactosed whey powder (DWP)-based diet

Summary

Introduction

If growth in the human population and food production continue at their present rate, there will be more than two billion more people to feed in 2050 and calorific deficiencies are likely to be more prevalent than they are today. One of the main concerns about the world food supply is the production of proteins for humans and livestock. Plant proteins (e.g., from soy) will continue to dominate in the 10 years, but inevitably alternative sources of protein. The strategy of partly replacing current protein sources for animal feed with economically viable and sustainable alternatives, e.g., protein from insects or livestock blood plasma, is one possible solution. Significant efforts have been made to introduce new protein containing feed ingredients in the diet of livestock [1, 2]. Information on the functional properties of (new) protein sources toward their consumers, livestock production, in particular is scarce

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Conclusion