Recently, we published an article on exercise recovery ingredients, including glutamine (see here). So the new study on Kyowa Hakko’s Sustamine® L-anayl-L-glutamine caught my eye this week. The hook was that Sustamine was found to curtail post-workout protein degradation, thus helping maximize muscle protein levels.

Sustamine is a proprietary combination of alanine and glutamine, two amino acids known for muscle health benefits. This dipeptide combo is quickly and easily absorbed, according to Kyowa Hakko.

Researchers from the University of Texas, Austin, and the National Tapei University of Education, Taiwan, studied post-resistance exercise protein degradation in 89 Spraque-Dawley rats aged two to three months administered either Sustamine, whey protein or a placebo; there was also a group of sedentary control rats.

The results, published in the journal Amino Acids (April 3, online ahead of print), indicated both the low-dose (0.1 g/kg) and high-dose (0.5 g/kg) of Sustamine taken after resistance training altered signaling proteins, including NF-kB and AMPK, known to break down muscle by a process called phosphorylation. Researchers also noted whey protein accelerated the activation of a signaling pathway that promotes muscle protein synthesis.

“These findings suggest that a combination of whey protein and Sustamine supplementation post-exercise might result in the phosphorylation of metabolic regulatory enzymes in a manner that would increase muscle protein and decrease muscle protein breakdown, thereby maximizing muscle protein accretion," they concluded.