Many transamination reactions occur in tissues, catalysed by transaminases specific for a particular amino/keto acid pair.

This reversibility can be exploited for synthetic chemistry applications to achieve the synthesis of valuable chiral amines.

[2].Animals must metabolize proteins to amino acids, at the expense of muscle tissue, when blood sugar is low.

In similar manner, in muscles the use of pyruvate for transamination gives alanine, which is carried by the bloodstream to the liver (the overall reaction being termed glucose-alanine cycle).

[citation needed] For example, the presence of elevated transaminases can be an indicator of liver and cardiac damage.