Table 4.

Plasma amino acid concentrations of male rats fed a cafeteria diet for one month compared with controls fed a standard rat chow diet.

Amino acid	Control (μM)	Cafeteria diet-fed (μM)	P
Alanine	464 ± 5	455 ± 37	NS
Aspartate*	31 ± 3	40 ± 8	NS
Asparagine*	49 ± 5	57 ± 4	NS
Σ Asp + Asn	81 ± 4	87 ± 8	NS
Glutamate*	149 ± 17	160 ± 11	NS
Glutamine*	487 ± 27	582 ± 5	0.005
Σ Glu + Gln	641 ± 48	705 ± 32	NS
Proline	139 ± 12	152 ± 12	NS
Hydroxyproline	22 ± 3	25 ± 4	NS
Threonine	165 ± 10	202 ± 7	0.010
Serine	186 ± 8	245 ± 13	0.003
Glycine	342 ± 9	417 ± 17	0.002
Leucine*	144 ± 7	146 ± 10	NS
Isoleucine*	52 ± 4	61 ± 8	NS
Valine*	157 ± 14	162 ± 15	NS
Σ branched chain	355 ± 36	355 ± 15	NS
Phenylalanine	76 ± 4	87 ± 6	NS
Tyrosine	87 ± 3	93 ± 6	NS
Tryptophan	95 ± 11	101 ± 7	NS
Methionine	51 ± 3	53 ± 4	NS
Cysteine	21 ± 3	22 ± 2	NS
Lysine	376 ± 18	396 ± 14	NS
Histidine	62 ± 4	69 ± 8	NS
Ornithine*	50 ± 3	68 ± 7	0.045
Citrulline*	48 ± 4	51 ± 4	NS
Arginine*	209 ± 10	164 ± 8	0.006
Σ urea cycle	278 ± 12	305 ± 14	NS
Σ total (mM)	3.98 ± 0.10	4.22 ± 0.19	NS

The values are the mean ± SEM for 6 different animals. Statistical significance of the differences between the two groups was determined with Student's t-test. NS: P > 0.05. Asterisks “*” indicate the amino acids incorporated in the sums marked in bold below them.