Utilization of intravenously infused tripeptides in baboons: effect on plasma concentration and urinary excretion of amino acids.

When baboons, while consuming an adequate diet, were infused continuously for 3 days with parenteral solutions (1I/day) containing either triglycine (50 mM) or trileucine (5 mM) there was either no or very little accumulation of these peptides either in plasma or urine. The increases in plasma concentrations of glycine or leucine and urinary excretion rates of these amino acids during the infusion of the above tripeptides were similar to those found when baboons were infused with parenteral solutions containing either glycine (150 mM) or leucine (15 mM). These data show efficient utilization of tripeptides under the condition of continuous infusion and encourage further investigation of tripeptides as substrates for parenteral nutrition.