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Research Paper|Volume 12, Issue 14|pp 15091—15103

Effects of enriched branched-chain amino acid supplementation on sarcopenia

Chun-Hung Ko1,2, Shin-Jiuan Wu3, Shan-Tair Wang4, Yin-Fan Chang5, Chin-Sung Chang5, Ta-Shen Kuan6, Hua-Ying Chuang7, Chia-Ming Chang2,8, Willy Chou9, Chih-Hsing Wu2,5
  • 1Department of Family Medicine Chi Mei Medical Center, Jia-Li, Tainan, Taiwan
  • 2Institute of Gerontology, National Cheng Kung University Medical College, Tainan, Taiwan
  • 3Department of Food and Nutrition, Chung Hwa University of Medical Technology, Tainan, Taiwan
  • 4Ditmanson Medical Foundation Chia-Yi Christian Hospital, Chia-Yi, Taiwan
  • 5Department of Family Medicine, National Cheng Kung University Hospital, College of Medicine, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan
  • 6Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, National Cheng Kung University Hospital, College of Medicine, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan
  • 7Department of Neurology, Chi Mei Medical Center, Jia-Li, Tainan, Taiwan
  • 8Department of Internal Medicine, National Cheng Kung University Hospital, College of Medicine, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan
  • 9Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Chi Mei Medical Center, Jia-Li, Tainan, Taiwan
Received: February 24, 2020Accepted: June 9, 2020Published: July 26, 2020
https://doi.org/10.18632/aging.103576

Copyright: © 2020 Ko et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Abstract

To evaluate the effects of short-term administration of enriched branched-chain amino acids (BCAAs) on subjects with pre-sarcopenia or sarcopenia, our quasi-experimental study enrolled 33 subjects (12 pre-sarcopenia/21 sarcopenia; 6 men/27 women; mean age 66.6 ± 10.3 years) to take one sachet (3.6 g) of enriched BCAA powder twice a day for five weeks followed by a discontinuation period of 12 weeks. We evaluated sarcopenic parameters, including grip strength, 6-meter gait speed, and bioelectrical-impedance-analysis-derived skeletal mass index (SMI), at baseline, 5 weeks, and 17 weeks. We found that both pre-sarcopenic and sarcopenic subjects showed improved SMI, gait speed, and grip strength at 5 weeks. However, all three parameters progressively declined at 17 weeks, especially SMI and grip strength in subjects aged < 65 years and gait speed and grip strength in subjects aged ≥ 65 years. It thus appears that supplementation with enriched BCAAs for 5 weeks correlates with short-term positive effects on sarcopenic parameters but attenuation of those effects following discontinuation for 12 weeks.