Blood amino acid compartmentation in men and women with different degrees of obesity

The role of blood cells in the interorgan transport of amino acids and the important size of such a pool has lead us to investigate the possibility th at obesity causes alterations in amino acid blood compartmentation in human s and that such alterations show gender-linked differences given the specia l features of the obese state for each gender. We determined the blood leve ls of amino acids in whole blood and in the blood cell compartment of 42 me n and 46 women. Subjects were classified according to their body mass index (BMI) into one of three groups: lean, overweight, or obese. Obesity was fo und to increase the levels of blood amino acids in both men and women, alth ough not in the same way: In men, moderate overweight was accompanied by a significant increase of the amino acid blood levels, which were practically unchanged by a greater BMI; however, in women this same increase was obser ved only in the obese group. This effect is more marked in the cell compart ment, where these alterations are actually reflected because plasma contrib ution values do not change as a whole. In conclusion, total blood and blood cell amino acids were altered in obesity, but in a different way, in both inert and women depending on the degree of obesity. This profile of changes is seen to be particularly, marked in the cellular pool, which contributes to enhancing the importance of this pool in the handling of amino acids. ( J. Nutr. Biochem. 9:697-704, 1998) (C) Elsevier Science Inc. 1998.