1 Statler Research Laboratories, Children's Hospital of Buffalo, and Department of Pediatrics, University of Buffalo School of Medicine
The parenteral administration of 100 mg of amino-acid nitrogen/kg of body weight/ day given within 4 hours to infants who are underfed (40 cal/kg of body weight/day) and protein-starved can change the nitrogen balance from negative to positive or greatly reduce the degree of negative balance.
The retained nitrogen is not degraded to urea or excreted as amino acids in the urine in the after-period. It is postulated that the retained amino-acid nitrogen is utilized for synthesis of tissue.
Even when the total caloric intake is suboptimal, the administration of a protein hydrolysate during prolonged protein starvation in infants who are unable to ingest protein seems desirable.
Submitted on July 24, 1958