Elevation of dietary or brain leucine appears to suppress food intake via a mechanism involving mechanistic target of rapamycin, AMPK, and/or branched chain amino acid (BCAA) metabolism. Mice bearing a deletion of mitochondrial branched chain aminotransferase (BCATm), which is expressed in peripheral tissues (muscle) and brain glia, exhibit marked increases in circulating BCAAs. Here, we test whether this increase alters feeding behavior and brain neuropeptide expression. Circulating and brain levels of BCAAs were increased two- to four-fold in BCATm-deficient mice (KO). KO mice weighed less than controls (25.9 vs 20.4 g,P<0.01), but absolute food intake was relatively unchanged. In contrast to wild-type mice, KO mice preferred a low-BCAA diet to a control diet (P<0.05) but exhibited no change in preference for low- vs high-protein (HP) diets. KO mice also exhibited low leptin levels and increased hypothalamicNpyandAgrpmRNA. Normalization of circulating leptin levels had no effect on either food preference or the increasedNpyandAgrpmRNA expression. If BCAAs act as signals of protein status, one would expect reduced food intake, avoidance of dietary protein, and reduction in neuropeptide expression in BCATm-KO mice. Instead, these mice exhibit an increased expression of orexigenic neuropeptides and an avoidance of BCAAs but not HP. These data thus suggest that either BCAAs do not act as physiological signals of protein status or the loss of BCAA metabolism within brain glia impairs the detection of protein balance.
Phenylbutyrate, a branched‐chain amino acid (BCAA) keto dehydrogenase activator, promotes BCAA metabolism and induces muscle catabolism in C2C12 cells
