Abstract
Ingesting sufficient dietary protein is essential for skeletal muscle mass maintenance. Dietary protein ingestion directly stimulates muscle protein synthesis, thus representing a major anabolic stimulus. Exercise represents another anabolic stimulus and further increases muscle protein synthesis rates following protein ingestion. So far, most studies have assessed the muscle protein synthesis rates following ingestion of amino acid mixtures or protein concentrates. However, in the habitual diet protein is mostly ingested via wholefoods. These wholefoods contain besides protein, also other nutrients that may modulate the anabolic response. Therefore, in this thesis we performed several studies in which we assessed the effect of ingesting different protein sources and wholefoods on the stimulation of muscle protein synthesis in young and older adults. We show that: (1) ingestion of an intact milk protein leads to a more sustained stimulation of muscle protein synthesis than ingestion of only BCAA; (2) besides milk protein, also cheese ingestion stimulates muscle protein synthesis at rest and during recovery from exercise; (3) ingestion of quark stimulates muscle protein synthesis to a similar extent in healthy young and older adults; (4) heating of eggs increases postprandial amino acid availability, but cooked egg ingestion does not result in higher postprandial muscle protein synthesis rates when compared to ingestion of raw eggs; (5) mealworm protein can be used as an alternative for milk protein to stimulate muscle protein synthesis at rest and during recovery from exercise.
Defence date: 13/12/2024
Maastricht University
