Alanine is a nonessential amino acid. It is the second most abundant amino acid in circulation, after glutamine. It is found in many foods including eggs, meat, lentils, and fish. Alanine is involved in sugar metabolism for energy and is important in immune system function, specifically T lymphocyte activation. Interestingly, alanine is an agonist that binds to the glycine site of N-methyl-d-aspartate (NMDA) receptors in the brain and improves the positive and cognitive symptoms of patients with schizophrenia.
Alanine plays an important role in BCAA metabolism. BCAA are released from skeletal muscle during prolonged exercise. Their carbon backbones are used as fuel, while their nitrogen portion is used to form alanine. Alanine then gets converted to pyruvate and subsequently glucose in the liver using the glucose-alanine cycle (Cahill Cycle). This cycle is critical for regenerating glucose in prolonged fasting and is upregulated when glucagon, epinephrine, and cortisol are elevated.
It ultimately helps clear ammonia and provides glucose to energy-deprived muscle tissue.
The Cahill Cycle uses the enzyme alanine aminotransferase (ALT). ALT catalyzes the transfer of the amino group from alanine to an alpha keto acid (typically alpha-ketoglutarate), forming pyruvate and glutamate as byproducts. ALT is commonly measured on standard laboratory chemistry profiles to assess liver health.
References:
- Gropper S SJ, Groff J. Adv Nutr Human Metab. 5th ed. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning; 2009.
- Park YK, Linkswiler H. Effect of vitamin B6 depletion in adult man on the plasma concentration and the urinary excretion of free amino acids. JNutr. 1971;101(2):185-191.
- Vannucchi H, Moreno FS, Amarante AR, de Oliveira JE, Marchini JS. Plasma amino acid patterns in alcoholic pellagra patients. Alcohol Alcoholism. 1991;26(4):431-436.
- Ron-Harel N, Ghergurovich JM, Notarangelo G, et al. T Cell Activation Depends on Extracellular Alanine. Cell Rep. 2019;28(12):3011-3021.e3014.
- Hatano T, Ohnuma T, Sakai Y, et al. Plasma alanine levels increase in patients with schizophrenia as their clinical symptoms improve-Results from the Juntendo University Schizophrenia Projects (JUSP). Psychiatr Res. 2010;177(1- 2):27-31.
- Sarabhai T, Roden M. Hungry for your alanine: when liver depends on muscle proteolysis. The J Clin Investi. 2019;129(11):4563-4566.
- Garg U, Smith LD. Biomarkers Inborn Errors of Metabolism: Clinical Aspects and Laboratory Determination. Elsevier; 2017.
- Patel KP, O’Brien TW, Subramony SH, Shuster J, Stacpoole PW. The spectrum of pyruvate dehydrogenase complex deficiency: clinical, biochemical and genetic features in 371 patients. Mol Gen Metab. 2012;105(1):34-43.
- Habarou F, Brassier A, Rio M, et al. Pyruvate carboxylase deficiency: An underestimated cause of lactic acidosis. Mol Gen Met Rep. 2015;2:25-31.
- Brunette MG, Delvin E, Hazel B, Scriver CR. Thiamine- responsive lactice acidosis in a patient with deficient low-KM pyruvate carboxylase activity in liver. Pediatrics. 1972;50(5):702-711.
Low protein intake, low BCAA levels, gastrointestinal malabsorption and maldigestion, or increased demands in gluconeogenesis, may result in lower alanine levels.
There is some literature to suggest that vitamin B6 and vitamin B3 normalized plasma alanine levels.
Because of its role in the CNS, lower plasma alanine levels have been seen in schizophrenic patients and an increase in plasma alanine correlated with symptom improvement.
Understand and improve your laboratory results with our health dashboard.
Upload your lab reports and get your interpretation today.
Our technology helps to understand, combine, track, organize, and act on your medical lab test results.
High protein intake of alanine-rich foods can elevate levels. Because of the relationship between alanine and the clearance of ammonia and nitrogen, it may be elevated in urea cycle disorders to serve as a reservoir for waste nitrogen.
Biotin, thiamine, other nutrients are cofactors within the pathways of alanine metabolism. Functional need for these nutrients may elevate alanine levels.
Interpret Your Lab Results
Upload your lab report, and we'll interpret and provide you with recommendations today.
Get StartedMonthly plan
Annual plan
Own it for life
Our exclusive data entry service is a convenient way to get your results into your private dashboard. Simply attach an image or a file of your lab test results, and one of our qualified data entry team members will add the results for you. We support all sorts of files, whether PDFs, JPGs, or Excel. This service is excellent whether you have a lot of reports to upload or are too busy to do the data entry yourself.
We strive to make the data entry process easy for you. Whether by offering dozens of templates to choose from that pre-populate the most popular laboratory panels or by giving you instant feedback on the entered values. Our data entry forms are an easy, fast, and convenient way to enter the reports yourself. There is no limit on how many lab reports you can upload.
$15 /month
billed every month
Most popular
Data entry included
$79 /year
$6.60/month billed annually
Data entry included
$250 /once
own it for life
Are You a Health Professional?
Get started with our professional plan
Welcome to Healthmatters Pro.
Save time on interpreting lab results with the largest database of biomarkers online. In-depth research on any test at your fingertips, all stored and tracked in one place. Learn more
Pro Monthly Plus
for health professionals
$75 per month
At HealthMatters, we're committed to maintaining the security and confidentiality of your personal information. We've put industry-leading security standards in place to help protect against the loss, misuse, or alteration of the information under our control. We use procedural, physical, and electronic security methods designed to prevent unauthorized people from getting access to this information. Our internal code of conduct adds additional privacy protection. All data is backed up multiple times a day and encrypted using SSL certificates. See our Privacy Policy for more details.
1-Methylhistidine, 3-Methylhistidine, Alanine, Alpha Aminoadipic Acid, Alpha Aminobutyric Acid, Arginine, Asparagine, Aspartic Acid, Beta Aminoisobutyric Acid, Beta-Alanine, Citrulline, Cystathionine, Ethanolamine, Gamma Aminobutyric Acid, Glutamic Acid, Glutamine, Glycine, Gycine, Histidine, Homocystine, Hydroxyproline, Plasma, Isoleucine, Leucine, Lysine, Methionine, Ornithine, Phenylalanine, Proline, Sarcosine, Serine, Taurine, Threonine, Tryptophan, Tyrosine, Valine