Prevention of chronic radiation enteropathy by dietary glutamine

Abstract

Provision of GLN during abdominal/pelvic XRT may prevent XRT injury and decrease the long-term complications of radiation enteropathy.

Low Intestinal Glutamine Level and Low Glutaminase Activity in Crohn’s Disease: A Rational for Glutamine Supplementation?

“…We show that enteral glutamine supplementation in experimental ileitis enhances the intestinal GSH content, in line with previous findings that glutamine is a biosynthetic precursor of GSH in the gut [50,51]. Moreover, individual mucosal glutamine levels are correlated with tGSH concentrations in our clinical study.…”

Glutamine protects Chinese hamster ovary cells from radiation killing

“…A potential disadvantage of glutamine supplementation for cancer patients is the possibility of tumors using glutamine as an energy substrate and glutamine supplementation actually spurring the growth of a tumor. Previous studies have shown that glutamine supplementation following irradiation of mice prevents radiation enteropathy (15) and that glutamine-enriched total parenteral nutrition of tumor-bearing mice does not increase tumor size, tumor DNA content, or tumor glutaminase activity (16). The results of these studies and the present study indicate that glutamine supplementation following radiation therapy might exert a radioprotective effect to healthy tissue without spurring tumor growth.…”

The effects of acute oral glutamine supplementation on exercise-induced gastrointestinal permeability and heat shock protein expression in peripheral blood mononuclear cells

“…Glutamine has been established as a protective agent for the intestinal tract, promoting tight junction stability along with prevention of endotoxin leakage upon stress exposure (chemical or physical) (Jensen et al 1994;Peng et al 2004;Singleton and Wischmeyer 2006). In humans, chronic glutamine supplementation (30 days) has been shown to improve intestinal integrity demonstrated by decreased urine lactulose content in neonates (Sevastiadou et al 2011).…”

“…Glutamine supplementation prior to exercise and treatment in clinical populations has been extensively researched; however, the effect of an acute dosage prior to stress on GI and immune function has never been reported. Glutamine has been supplemented several days or weeks prior to medical treatment such as bone marrow transplant (Ziegler 2002) or chemotherapy (Jensen et al 1994) to prevent immune suppression (Parry-Billings et al 1990). In addition, it has been given to burn patients (Parry-Billings et al 1990) to prevent sepsis and has been tested in patients post joint replacement surgery to counteract muscle atrophy and myopathies (Blomqvist et al 1995;Burnham et al 2005).…”