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CompletedNCT03411005Updated Apr 8, 2019

Metabolic Availability of Lysine From Sorghum in Adult Men

An interventional study of Metabolic availability of lysine in sorghum in Healthy Men, sponsored by The Hospital for Sick Children. Completed at 1 site in Canada. Open to male participants aged 18 Years to 49 Years, including healthy volunteers. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2019-04-08.

Sponsored by The Hospital for Sick Children · Not applicable, Interventional, and Other

Phase
Not applicable
Study type
Interventional
Enrollment
7
Allocation
Not applicable
Ages
18 Years to 49 Years
Sex
Male
01

Study summary

Protein is the key determinant of growth and bodily functions. The quality of food proteins depend on their amino acid content and the amount of amino acids used by the body to make proteins. Globally Cereal Grains (CG) provide 50% of the calories and protein in the diet and exceed 80% in poorer developing countries. In many of those countries, sorghum is the major cereal grain in the diet. The protein in sorghum is low in the essential amino acid lysine. Hence sorghum protein is of low quality. Low lysine affects protein synthesis in the body. Cooking methods also affect the lysine available from foods to the body.The protein can be complemented by the addition of lentils to augment the low lysine content. However, lentils are prohibitively expensive in some developing countries.

As the human population increases, the world faces the continuous challenge of maximizing a limited food supply. Protein quality (PQ) evaluation of sorghum directly in humans would allow us to bridge the gap in knowledge between what is required and how best to provide.The information gathered from this project will provide the first direct experimental data on PQ of sorghum protein in humans on which nutrition recommendations can be built.

Read the detailed description

Each subject will be part of 8 different experimental diets, and randomly assigned to one of the diets every time.

4 reference diet would be based on egg protein composition, 3 sorghum diets would have protein from cooked sorghum and 1 mixed meal would comprise of cooked sorghum and lentils.

Each experimental diet will be studied over 3 days: 2 adaptation and 1 study day. The 2 adaptation meals would be consumed at home. On the study day 3, following a 12-h overnight fast, subjects will come to the research unit at The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, ON for a period of 7.5 h and consume the diet as 9 hourly meals. The first 3 meals would be consumed at home.

For the duration of all experiments, subjects will consume a daily multivitamin supplement to ensure adequate vitamin intake.

Measurements:

Resting energy expenditure (REE) will be measured by open-circuit indirect calorimetry Body composition (fat and fat free mass) will be measured by BIA and Skin Fold. Breath samples will be collected after the 4th and 7th meals.

02

Conditions studied

  • Healthy Men

Keywords

  • Lysine, Adult, Protein Quality
03

In context

Lead sponsor

The Hospital for Sick Children is the lead sponsor of 577 studies on the registry; 83 are open to participants now.

Of its 7 completed or terminated interventional studies of FDA-regulated products, 0 (0%) have results posted.

Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily.

04

Who can participate

Ages eligible
18 Years to 49 Years
Sexes eligible
Male
Accepts healthy volunteers
Yes

Go through the criteria one by one — yes, no or not sure — and take the list to your doctor or the study team. Kept in this browser only.

Inclusion criteria

  • Male, age 18 - 49 yrs Healthy, with no known clinical condition which would affect protein or AA metabolism, ex. Diabetes Stable Body Weight Not on any medications that could affect protein or amino acid metabolism e.g. steroids

Exclusion criteria

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Unwillingness to participate or unable to tolerate the diet Recent history of weight loss within the last 3 months or on a weight reducing diet Inability to tolerate study diets (ex. Allergy to ingredients)
05

Study design

Phase
Not applicable
Primary purpose
Other
Allocation
Not applicable
Intervention model
Single group
Masking
None (open label)
Enrollment
7 participants (actual)

Study arms

  • Experimental
    Metabolic availability of lysine in Sorghum

    Participants will be seen initially for pre-study assessment (2 hour). They will then be studied at 8 levels of lysine intake. Subjects will visit SickKid's Clinical Research Center a total of 9 times, with each visit being at least one week before the next. All 9 visits must be made within 6 months. Each set of experiment consists of a 3 day period. During the first 2 days (Adaptation Days) you will be expected to consume 4 meals per day consisting of a protein liquid drink and protein free-cookies and/or cooked sorghum with or without lentils, which will all be provided by the investigators.

    Dietary Supplement: Metabolic availability of lysine in sorghum

Interventions

  • Dietary supplementMetabolic availability of lysine in sorghum

    Four levels of lysine intakes will be provided by the reference protein drinks, 3 levels of lysine from sorghum and 1 level from sorghum with lentils.

06

What researchers measure

Primary outcomes

  1. Assessment of the protein quality of Sorghum by determining the Metabolic availability of Lysine.

    The MA of lysine in sorghum will be studied using the IAAO technique with L-(1-13C) phenylalanine as the indicator. In order to determine the MA of lysine, four levels of lysine will be tested; (5, 8, 12, 15 mg/kg/d which represent 13, 21, 32 and 40% of the lysine requirement for adults (37 mg/kg/d)) in five healthy adult men in a repeated measures design. Each subject will participate in 8 experiments: 4 lysine intakes as L-lysine from crystalline amino acid, 3 intakes of lysine from sorghum prepared by moist cooking and 1 experiment for dietary complementation with lentils. The MA of lysine will be estimated by comparing the IAAO response to varying intakes of Lysine in cooked sorghum compared with the IAAO response to lysine intakes in the reference protein (crystalline amino acid mixture patterned after egg protein) using the slope ratio method.

    Time frame: 2 years

07

Study locations

1 site
  • The Hospital for Sick Children
    Toronto, Ontario M5G1X8, Canada
08

References and documents

Publications

  • Paoletti A, Fakiha A, Tul-Noor Z, Pencharz PB, Levesque CL, Ball RO, Kong D, Elango R, Courtney-Martin G. Bioavailable Lysine Assessed Using the Indicator Amino Acid Oxidation Method in Healthy Young Males is High when Sorghum is Cooked by a Moist Cooking Method. J Nutr. 2022 Mar 3;152(3):770-778. doi: 10.1093/jn/nxab410. PubMed 34871427 ↗

Individual participant data

Plan to share: No

09

Timeline

Tracking since Sep 25, 2026
ElapsedEstimatedEstimated, not yet reached

Ran from Feb 2018 to primary completion in Sep 2018, 6 months.

How these figures are worked out, and which studies are left out of them.

Registered
Jan 13, 2018
First posted
Jan 25, 2018
StartActual
Feb 15, 2018
Primary completionActual
Sep 1, 2018
CompletionActual
Nov 22, 2018
Last update
Apr 8, 2019
What these dates mean
Start.
When the first participant enrolled; while estimated, when the study expects to open to recruitment.
Primary completion.
When the last participant was examined or treated to collect data for the study's main question, its primary outcome. A study that stopped early gives the date its data collection stopped.
Completion.
When the last participant's last visit took place, for every outcome, secondary ones and side effects included: the end of the study. Often later than primary completion, sometimes the same day.
Actual and Est.
Actual means the registry says the date has happened. Est. (estimated) is a date the sponsor plans or expects. It can still move, and the sponsor is expected to change it to actual once it has passed.
No changes since tracking began. The registry record was last updated on Apr 8, 2019, before this site started recording changes on Sep 25, 2026. Its history is on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗
10

Registry details

Key details

Study ID
NCT03411005
Collaborators
Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR)
Responsible party
Glenda Courtney-Martin (Principal Investigator, The Hospital for Sick Children) — Principal investigator
First posted
Jan 25, 2018
Start date
Feb 15, 2018
Primary completion
Sep 1, 2018
Completion
Nov 22, 2018
Last update
Apr 8, 2019

Study contacts

Glenda Courtney-Martin, PhD
principal investigator · The Hospital for Sick Children

Oversight

Data monitoring committee
No
FDA-regulated drug
No
FDA-regulated device
No
View the source record on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗

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This study is completed, as verified in Apr 2019. You cannot join it, but the record below documents what was studied.

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