The effects of glucagon deficiency and excess on plasma leucine, lysine, and alanine were examined in six healthy young adult men, with primed continuous infusions of L-[1-13C]- or L-[5,5,5-2H3]leucine, L-[alpha-15N]-lysine, and L-[3-13C]alanine for 150 min before and during 210 min of either a glucagon-deficient euglycemic state (experiment 1), a basal glucagon state (experiment 2), or a glucagon-excess state (experiment 3). Steady-state plasma hormone levels were achieved by infusion of somatostatin (250 micrograms/h) and insulin (0.07 mU.kg-1.min-1), without (experiment 1) or with an infusion of glucagon at 0.7 ng.kg-1.min-1 (experiment 2) or 2.5 ng.kg-1.min-1 (experiment 3). Plasma branched-chain amino acid (AA) concentrations did not change with altered glucagon status, whereas significant differences were observed for plasma lysine, alanine, glycine, serine, threonine, proline, tyrosine, citrulline, and ornithine levels (0.05 greater than P greater than 0.001). Plasma leucine, lysine, and alanine fluxes and the rate of de novo alanine synthesis showed no significant changes with either glucagon deficiency or excess. These findings lead to the conclusion that glucagon-induced alterations in plasma AA profiles are not due to changes in the rate of appearance of AA from peripheral tissues but rather a consequence of changes in the fate of AA within the splanchnic region.