text: Metabolic regulation of nitrogen-containing molecules, such as amino acids, is also kept at steady state. The amino acid pool, which describes the level of amino acids in the body, is maintained at a relatively constant concentration by balancing the rate of input (i.e. from dietary protein ingestion, production of metabolic intermediates) and rate of depletion (i.e. from formation of body proteins, conversion to energy-storage molecules). Amino acid concentration in lymph node cells, for example, is kept at steady state with active transport as the primary source of entry, and diffusion as the source of efflux.