Fig. 1

BCAA starvation affects cell growth and mitochondrial metabolism. a Cell viability assay comparing no glucose (-Glc), no glutamine (-Gln), and no BCAA (-BCAA) conditions after 72 h of starvation. Two-way ANOVA followed by Tukey’s multiple comparisons tests. N > 4, n > 50. Criteria of significance: *p < 0.05; **p < 0.01; ***p < 0.001, ****p < 0.0001. b Respiration of intact cells measured by high-resolution respirometry using indicated cell lines and starvation conditions, including BCAA. Cells were starved of BCAAs for 48 h prior experiment. Two-way ANOVA followed by Tukey’s multiple comparisons tests. N > 3, n ≥ 6. Criteria of significance: *p < 0.05; **p < 0.01; ***p < 0.001, ****p < 0.0001. c Levels of mitochondrial metabolites measured by GC-MS expressed as a log2 fold change compared to complete medium (ctrl). Cells were starved 48 h prior the experiment. Citrate (CIT), 2-oxoglutarate (2OG), succinate (SUCC), fumarate (FUM), malate (MAL), glutamate (Glu), aspartate (Asp), and alanine (Ala)