The effects of glucagon deficiency and excess on plasma concentrations of 21 amino acids were studied in six normal human subjects for 8 h. During glucagon deficiency, produced by intravenous infusion of somatostatin (0.5 mg/h) and insulin (5 mU/kg per h), amino acid concentration (sum of 21 amino acids) rose from 2,607 +/- 76 to 2,922 +/- 133 microM after 4 h (P less than 0.025). The largest increases occurred in lysine (+26%), glycine (+24%), alanine (+23%), and arginine (+23%) concentrations. During glucagon excess produced by intravenous infusion of somatostatin (0.5 mg/h), insulin (5 mU/kg per h), and glucagon (60 ng/kg per h), amino acid concentration decreased from 2,774 +/- 166 to 2,388 +/- 102 microM at 8 h (P less than 0.01). The largest decreases occurred in citrulline (-37%), proline (-32%), ornithine (-30%), tyrosine (-23%), glycine (-20%), threonine (-21%), and alanine (18%) concentrations. Urinary urea nitrogen and total nitrogen excretions were lower during glucagon deficiency than during glucagon excess (3.1 +/- 0.2 vs. 6.3 +/- 2.3 g/8 h, P less than 0.05 and 4.8 +/- 1.0 vs 7.0 +/- 2.6 g/8 h, respectively, P less than 0.05). Biostator-controlled euglycemic glucagon deficiency was produced in four normal subjects for 4 h to eliminate possible effects of changes in glucose concentration on amino acids. Amino acid concentration (sum of 18 amino acids) increases occurred in arginine (+42%), alanine (+28%), glutamine (+25%), and glycine (+16%) concentrations. The data show that small changes (-66 pg/ml and +50 pg/ml) in basal glucagon concentrations cause plasma amino acid concentrations to change in opposite directions. The finding that urinary excretion of nitrogen and urea nitrogen was greater during glucagon excess than during glucagon deficiency suggested alterations in the rate of gluconeogenesis from amino acids as one mechanism by which glucagon controls blood amino acid levels.