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The effectiveness of leucine on muscle protein synthesis, lean body mass and leg lean mass accretion in older people: a systematic review and meta-analysis
Open accessAbstract
In the present study, we performed a meta-analysis to assess the ability of leucine supplementation to increase the muscle protein fraction synthetic rate and to augment lean body mass or leg lean mass in elderly patients. A literature search was conducted on Medline, Cochrane, EMBASE and Google Scholar databases up to 31 December 2013 for clinical trials that investigated the administration of leucine as a nutrient that affects muscle protein metabolism and muscle mass in elderly subjects. The included studies were randomised controlled trials. The primary outcome for the meta-analysis was the protein fractional synthetic rate. Secondary outcomes included lean body mass and leg lean mass. A total of nine studies were included in the meta-analysis. The results showed that the muscle protein fractional synthetic rate after intervention significantly increased in the leucine group compared with the control group (pooled standardised difference in mean changes 1·08, 95 % CI 0·50, 1·67; P < 0·001). No difference was found between the groups in relation to lean body mass (pooled standardised difference in mean changes 0·18, 95 % CI − 0·18, 0·54; P = 0·318) or leg lean mass (pooled standardised difference in mean changes 0·006, 95 % CI − 0·32, 0·44; P = 0·756). These findings suggest that leucine supplementation is useful to address the age-related decline in muscle mass in elderly individuals, as it increases the muscle protein fractional synthetic rate.
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“A meta-analysis of RCTs revealed a significant increase in the rate of muscle protein fractional synthesis with leucine supplementation in older adults.47”
From Nutritional and exercise interventions in individuals with sarcopenic obesity around retirement age: a systematic review and meta-analysis (2023) · cites this paper as [47]
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The Role of Inflammation in Age-Related Sarcopenia
Dalle, S., Rossmeislova, L., & Koppo, K. (2017) · Frontiers in Physiology · doi:10.3389/fphys.2017.01045 · Cited by 668
“…demonstrated the beneficial effects of leucine supplementation on MPS in elderly (be it without changes in lean body mass or lean leg mass) (Xu et al., 2015), while other studies failed to show a consistent effect of protein/leucine supplementation on muscle mass, strength and/or function…”
ResultDoes nutrition play a role in the prevention and management of sarcopenia?
Robinson, S. M., Reginster, J. Y., Rizzoli, R., Shaw, S. C., Kanis, J. A., Bautmans, I., Bischoff-Ferrari, H., Bruyère, O., Cesari, M., Dawson-Hughes, B., et al. (2018) · Clinical Nutrition · doi:10.1016/j.clnu.2017.08.016 · Cited by 491
Nutrition and Sarcopenia—What Do We Know?
Ganapathy, A., & Nieves, J. W. (2020) · Nutrients · doi:10.3390/nu12061755 · Cited by 355
“A systematic review and meta-analysis of leucine concluded that leucine increases muscle protein synthesis in older individuals, and may be of benefit to address age-related declines in muscle mass [27].”
BackgroundChen, L., Hsiao, F., Akishita, M., Assantachai, P., Lee, W., Lim, W. S., Muangpaisan, W., Kim, M., Merchant, R. A., Peng, L., et al. (2025) · Nature Aging · doi:10.1038/s43587-025-01004-y · Cited by 388
“Leucine has been particularly associated with higher muscle protein synthesis rates 60 .”
Gielen, E., Beckwée, D., Delaere, A., De Breucker, S., Vandewoude, M., Bautmans, I., the Sarcopenia Guidelines Development Group of the Belgian Society of Gerontology and Geriatrics (BSGG), Bautmans, I., Beaudart, C., Beckwée, D., et al. (2021) · Nutrition Reviews · doi:10.1093/nutrit/nuaa011 · Cited by 269
Metadata
- Authors
- Xu, Z.-R., Tan, Z.-J., Zhang, Q., Gui, Q.-F., & Yang, Y.-M.
- Affiliations
- First Affiliated Hospital Zhejiang University (CN)
- ORCID
- Zhang, Qin
- Venue
- British Journal of Nutrition
- Publisher
- Cambridge University Press (CUP)
- Published
- 2014-09-19
- Volume
- 113
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 25-34
- ISSN
- 0007-1145 (ISSN-L)
- 1475-2662
- OpenAlex
- W2161210071
- Cited by
- 136
- References
- 52
- Citations by year
- 2026: 19 · 2025: 17 · 2024: 9 · 2023: 12 · 2022: 17 · 2021: 12 · 2020: 14 · 2019: 8 · 2018: 15 · 2017: 5 · 2016: 6 · 2015: 2
- FWCI
- 0.43
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- British Journal Of Nutrition (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- Science and Technology Program of Zhejiang Province
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Nursing › Nutrition and Dietetics › Muscle metabolism and nutrition
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Physiology (medical) › Nutrition and Health in Aging
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Muscle Physiology and Disorders
- Keywords
- leucine supplementation, muscle protein synthesis, fractional synthesis rate, lean body mass, leg lean mass, sarcopenia, older adults, age-related muscle loss, muscle protein metabolism
- MeSH terms
- Aged, Body Composition, Humans, Leg, Leucine, Muscle Proteins, Body Mass Index, Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic, Databases, Factual, Muscle, Skeletal, Dietary Supplements
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