BCAT2 and ischemia: This indicates that either conversion of leucine to α-ketoisocaproic acid was decreased during simulated ischemia or α-ketoisocaproic acid was converted to leucine during ischemia due to enhanced activity of branched-chain aminotransferase 2 enzyme (BCAT2), an enzyme that catalyzes the reversible transamination of α-ketoisocaproic acid back to leucine (Moghei et al., 2016).