Gut barrier and microbiota changes with glycine and branched chain amino acids supplementation in chronic hemodialysis patients: a randomized double-blind cross-over trial. MIDIWA

Our analysis evaluates the impact of glycine and branched chain amino acids (BCAA) on the gut barrier and microbiota in hemodialysis patients.They consumed glycine or BCAA (7g twice daily) for 4 months, and underwent a 1-month wash-out period, before cross-over of supplementations. Serum levels of cytokines, surrogate markers of intestinal permeability, appetite mediators, fecal Immunoglobulin A (IgA) and fecal microbiota (16S rRNA gene sequencing) were obtained at the start and end of each supplementation.We analyzed 27 patients compliant to the supplementations. BCAA and glycine did not affect the levels of serum cytokines, intestinal permeability, appetite mediators nor fecal IgA. PCoA and PERMANOVA showed strong microbiota clustering by subject, but no effect of amino acid treatments. Bacterial alpha-diversity and zOTU richness remained stable, whatever the supplementation.