Niacin-Tryptophan Deficiency Resulting from Imbalances in Amino Acid Diets

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Abstract
It has been demonstrated that rats receiving purified amino acid diets containing 0.10–0.11% of tryptophan develop a niacin deficiency when all of the remaining essential amino acids are provided at levels approaching those required for optimum growth. If the leucine, isoleucine, valine, threonine or lysine content of the diet is reduced to some fraction of the usual requirement, such that the amino acid in question becomes more limiting than tryptophan, growth is improved indicating less severe niacin deficiency. These findings and others reported are in general agreement with the view that tryptophan serves as a source of niacin more effectively when a relative lack of some other essential amino acid is limiting its use for protein formation.