Limiting certain nutrients before surgery may reduce risk of surgical complications

Limiting certain essential nutrients for several days before surgery—either protein or amino acids—may reduce the risk of serious surgical complications such as heart attack or stroke, according to a new Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) study.

The study appears in the January 25, 2012 issue of Science Translational Medicine.

“Food restriction as a way to increase stress resistance may seem counterintuitive, but in fact our data indicate that the well-fed state is the one more susceptible to this kind of injury,” said James Mitchell, assistant professor of genetics and complex diseases at HSPH.

The researchers, led by Mitchell and Wei Peng, a former HSPH postdoctoral fellow, analyzed two groups of mice. One group was allowed to eat normally for 6 to 14 days; the other group was given a diet free of protein or lacking a single amino acid (amino acids are the building blocks of proteins). Both groups were then subjected to surgical stress that could potentially harm the kidneys or liver. In the mice that were allowed to eat as usual, about 40 percent died. The protein- and amino acid-free mice all survived.

The researchers also found that removing the gene that senses levels of any type of amino acid eliminated the protective effect. This suggests that the pathway activated by amino acid deficiency—rather than the absence of any particular amino acid—is responsible for the observed benefits, and opens up the potential for targeting drugs toward that pathway.