Preventive oral supplementation with glutamine and arginine has beneficial effects on the intestinal mucosa and inflammatory cytokines in endotoxemic rats

Abstract

The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of oral supplementation with a combination of arginine and glutamine on the intestinal mucosa and inflammatory cytokines of lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced adult rats. Fifty Sprague-Dawley rats (average weight of 185 ± 15 g) were randomly divided into five groups: control group A (CA) and control group B (CB), both orally supplemented with 0.9% saline; group Arg, supplemented with 300 mg/kg day(-1) arginine; group Gln, supplemented with 300 mg/kg day(-1) glutamine; group AG, supplemented with 150 mg/kg day(-1) arginine and 150 mg/kg day(-1) glutamine. The experiment lasted for 2 weeks. Food intake and body weight were measured during the experiment. At 10.00 h of day 15, animals were injected with 4 mg/kg LPS (group CB, Arg, Gln, and AG) or sterile saline (group CA) after supplementation. Then at 14.00 h, all animals were killed and blood and tissue collected. The results showed that compared with group CB, arginine concentration tended to be increased (P > 0.05) in group Arg and AG, while there was no significant difference in glutamine concentration among the groups challenged with LPS. Oral supplementation with arginine or/and glutamine mitigated morphology impairment (lower villus height, P < 0.05) in the jejunum and ileum induced by LPS challenge. LPS administration resulted in a significant increase in TNF-α, IL-1β, IL-6 and IL-10 mRNA abundance. Arginine only significantly decreased TNF-α mRNA abundance in the ileum, while glutamine significantly decreased both TNF-α and IL-10 mRNA in the ileum. A combination of arginine and glutamine significantly decreased TNF-α and IL-1β mRNA abundance in both the jejunum and ileum, while they also significantly decreased anti-inflammatory IL-10 in the ileum. These results revealed that an oral supply of combined arginine and glutamine had more favorable effects on the intestinal mucosa and inflammatory cytokines than a supply of arginine or glutamine alone.

Responses in whole-body amino acid kinetics to an acute, sub-clinical endotoxin challenge in lambs

“…One explanation is that this represents greater net removal in response to the endotoxin challenge. Indeed, a number of studies have implicated greater requirement for arginine in injury and sepsis (7)(8)(9)(10) , probably due to changes in blood flow with associated need for greater nitric oxide synthesis (38) . Furthermore, arginine supplementation lowered the increased villus height induced by LPS in rats (10) , and reduced TNF-α in the ileum.…”

“…From 12 h onwards a mixture of stable isotope-labelled AA was infused into all animals as described previously (18) . Briefly, 1 g [U- 13 C]whole algal hydrolysate prepared from Celtone-C (Martek Biosciences Corporation), plus 100 mg L-[5-13 C]methyl methionine 100 mg, 120 mg L-[1-13 C]cysteine and 150 mg L- [2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15] N]glutamine (all sourced from Cambridge Isotope Laboratories), was dissolved in 100 ml of buffered physiological saline (pH 7·4) containing 50 000 IU of heparin and infused at 10 g/h. Methionine, cysteine and glutamine were added, as these AA are lost during the acid hydrolysis preparation of the whole algal powder.…”

“…For example, practical and theoretical arguments have been presented for additional arginine in cardiovascular and pulmonary disorders (7)(8)(9)(10) , for cysteine (11) , leucine (12) and threonine (13) in sepsis, for glutamine in endotoxaemia (10) , and for phenylalanine to support acutephase protein synthesis (14) . In other situations, combinations of AA have been proposed (10,15,16) . Obviously different stages of injury, infection or recovery may require differences in the combinations and absolute quantities of AA.…”

The Estimation of Soil Trace Elements Distribution and Soil-Plant-Animal Continuum in Relation to Trace Elements Status of Sheep in Huangcheng Area of Qilian Mountain Grassland, China

“…Approximately 8 mL blood was collected from each sheep in clean, sterilized glass test tube by jugular vein puncture (Yang et al 2013), allowed to clot at room temperature and centrifuged for 15 min at 3000 r min -1 . The serum was frozen at -20 °C prior to analysis (Zhou et al 2012). The trace elements content was determined using atomic absorption spectrophotometer.…”

Alanyl-glutamine attenuates 5-fluorouracil-induced intestinal mucositis in apolipoprotein E-deficient mice

“…Glutamine has been also implicated in the regulation of the innate immune system (11), the inflammatory process (12) and intestinal epithelial viability following Clostridium difficile toxin A (13) and 5-FU-challenge (14). …”