Mice lacking the intestinal and renal neutral amino acid transporter slc6a19 demonstrate the relationship between dietary protein intake and amino acid malabsorption

Dietary protein restriction has beneficial impacts on metabolic health. B⁰AT1 (SLC6A19) is the major transporter of neutral amino acids at the intestinal epithelia and absorbs the bulk of the diet-derived neutral amino acids from the intestinal lumen. It also reabsorbs neutral amino acids in the renal proximal tubules. Mice lacking B⁰AT1 show cellular outcomes of protein restriction, such as high FGF21 levels and low mTORC1 activity. Moreover, they have improved glucose homeostasis and resist diet-induced obesity. In this study, we investigated the relationship between protein restriction and dietary protein intake in C57Bl6/J wild-type (wt) and SLC6A19-knockout (SLC6A19ko) mice. When SLC6A19ko mice were fed diets containing 5%, 25%, or 52% of their total calories derived from protein, no differences in food intake or weight gain were observed. All essential amino acids significantly positively correlated with increasing dietary casein content in the wt mice. The SLC6A19ko mice showed reduced postprandial levels of essential amino acids in plasma, particularly following high-protein diets. Upon fasting, essential amino acids were the same in the wt and SLC6A19ko mice due to reduced amino acid catabolism. Bacterial metabolites originating from amino acid fermentation correlated with the dietary protein content, but showed a complex profile in the blood of the SLC6A19ko mice. This study highlights the potential of SLC6A19 as a knock-out or inhibition target to induce protein restriction for the treatment of metabolic disorders.