Post Meal Energy Boluses Do Not Increase the Duration of Muscle Protein Synthesis Stimulation in Two Anabolic Resistant Situations

Background: When given in the long term, whey proteins alone do not appear to be an optimal nutritional strategy to prevent or slow down muscle wasting during aging or catabolic states. It has been hypothesized that the digestion of whey may be too rapid during a catabolic situation to sustain the anabolic postprandial amino acid requirement necessary to elicit an optimal anabolic response. Interestingly, it has been shown recently that the duration of the postprandial stimulation of muscle protein synthesis in healthy conditions can be prolonged by the supplementary ingestion of a desynchronized carbohydrate load after food intake. We verified this hypothesis in the present study in two different cases of muscle wasting associated with anabolic resistance, i.e., glucocorticoid treatment and aging.

Methods: Multi-catheterized minipigs were treated or not with glucocorticoids for 8 days. Muscle protein synthesis was measured sequentially over time after the infusion of a ¹³C phenylalanine tracer using the arterio-venous method before and after whey protein meal ingestion. The energy bolus was given 150 min after the meal. For the aging study, aged rats were fed the whey meal and muscle protein synthesis was measured sequentially over time with the flooding dose method using ¹³C Valine. The energy bolus was given 210 min after the meal.

Results: Glucocorticoid treatment resulted in a decrease in the duration of the stimulation of muscle protein synthesis. The energy bolus given after food intake was unable to prolong this stimulation despite a simultaneous increase of insulin and glucose following its absorption. In old rats, a similar observation was made with no effect of the energy bolus on the duration of the muscle anabolic response following whey protein meal intake.

Conclusions: Despite very promising observations in healthy situations, the strategy aimed at increasing muscle protein synthesis stimulation by giving an energy bolus during the postprandial period remained inefficient in our two anabolic resistance models.