The role of amino acids and synthetic dipeptides

reports. The likely requirements for intravenous amino acids were clearly spelt out and numerous commercial preparations (mostly for adults) became available in Europe. The composition of these preparations, however, was mainly based on oral requirement data in healthy man. The major nutrition efforts were directed to improve tolerance of the nitrogen load in the presence of illness rather than to provide specific nutrients for individual organs or tissues. At most instances, the efficacy of an amino acid therapy was monitored in blood (plasma). However, as shown over the past 20 years, changes in plasma-free amino acid concentrations may parallel those in intracellular compartment, but they frequently differ either quantitatively or qualitatively. The importance of this area was recognised early in the history of ESPEN when in the 1984 Arvid