Building Muscle Mass: Researchers Study Protein’s Role

Researchers are always working to better understand the equine body and how it functions. Case in point: A team of researchers from the Virginia Tech Middleburg Agricultural Research and Extension Center recently completed an index study on a
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Researchers are always working to better understand the equine body and how it functions. Case in point: A team of researchers from the Virginia Tech Middleburg Agricultural Research and Extension Center recently completed an index study on a high-protein diet’s relationship to increased muscle synthesis in horses. A better understanding of what happens at a molecular level in the horse’s body will help scientists design future studies for examining dietary management practices.

Scientists know the main structural component of muscle is protein, and dietary protein provides the horse’s body with amino acids, which are the basis for formation and repair of muscle and other soft tissues throughout the body.

But, researchers had never examined dietary protein’s effect on the stimulation of muscle protein synthesis in horses. Kristine L. Urschel, PhD, now an assistant professor in Animal and Food Sciences at the University of Kentucky, and a team of researchers examined muscle protein synthesis in horses fasted for 18 hours (to reduce the levels of amino acids present in their bodies).

The team withheld feed from eight healthy mature horses (9 to 17 years old with no known medical conditions) for 18 hours before taking blood samples. They then offered half of the group a 33% crude protein feed at 2 g/kg of body weight while the other horses served as controls and continued fasting

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