Short time L-glutamine supplementation of malnourished rats

• Autor(a) principal: Tannus,Andréa Ferreira Schuwartz
• Data de Publicação: 2005
• Outros Autores: Junqueira-Franco,Márcia Morandi, Suen,Vivian Marques Miguel, Portari,Guilherme Vannucchi, Marchini,Júlio Sérgio
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Revista de Nutrição
• Texto Completo: http://old.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1415-52732005000600002
• topic: amino acids; dietary supplements; glutamine; malnutrition; nitrogen; rats

OBJETIVE: Considering that in malnourished patients supplemented with L-glutamine the negativity of the nitrogen balance tends to decrease, the present study aimed to determine whether malnourished Wistar rats supplemented with L-glutamine would show lower urinary nitrogen excretion, a greater deposition of nitrogen content in different tissues, and/or an alteration in the plasma amino acid levels. METHODS: The rats were divided into groups: 1) protein-energy malnutrition, 2) protein malnutrition and 3) normally nourished group. The urinary and tissue nitrogen contents were determined by the Kjeldahl method and plasma amino acids by liquid chromatography. RESULTS: Weight, urinary and tissue nitrogen accumulation were significantly reduced in the group with protein-energy malnutrition, but did not improve with L-glutamine supplementation supplied for a short time. The plasma amino acid concentrations showed no special pattern with L-glutamine supplementation. CONCLUSION: It was concluded that it was not possible to detect any positive effect of L-glutamine supplementation on the tissue and urinary nitrogen metabolism in malnourished rats.