The Effect of Glutamine on Systemic Inflammation During Human Experimental Endotoxemia

Rigshospitalet

Status: Completed

Conditions: Systemic Inflammation; Sepsis

Treatments: Dietary Supplement: alanine-glutamine infusion

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT00780520

H-KF-01-144/98

Details and patient eligibility

About

Glutamine levels decrease during severe sepsis; this may be associated with increased mortality. The investigators tested the effects of glutamine supplementation on systemic inflammation in a human sepsis model.

The investigators found that glutamine levels drops significantly during experimentally induced systemic inflammation. However, glutamine did not affect the degree of inflammation.

Full description

Glutamine levels have been shown to decrease substantially with severe sepsis and this has been connected with increased mortality. Therefore, in the present study, we infused either saline or Alanine-glutamine during an endotoxin challenge and measured parameters related to an immune response, i.e. plasma cytokines and Heat Shock Protein (HSP)-70.

Materials and Methods This was a double blind, randomised, placebo-controlled crossover trial in eight healthy young men. The study was performed in random order on two separate days, with a four-week washout period between days. Subjects received an infusion of Alanine-glutamine ( Dipeptiven) at a rate of 0.025 g / (kg BW * h) for 10 hrs or saline. After two hours of infusion subjects received an intravenous bolus of E. coli endotoxin (0.3 ng/kg). Blood samples were collected hourly for the following eight hours. HSP-70 protein content in isolated Blood Mononuclear Cells (BMNCs) was measured by western blotting.

Results and Discussion Plasma glutamine was significantly increased during infusion with alanine-glutamine infusion. En-dotoxin caused a reduction in plasma-glutamine during saline infusion as well as during Alanine-glutamine infusion. A significant effect of endotoxin was found on leukocyte subpopulations, tumor necrosis factor-a, interleukin-6, the expression of HSP-70 in BMNCs, temperature, and heart rate. However, no differences were detected between treatments with regard to the effect of endotoxin on any of these parameters.

Conclusion Endotoxemia reduces plasma glutamine independently of parenteral infusion of alanine-glutamine. Glutamine does not alter the response of leukocytes, leukocyte subpopulations, IL-6, or TNF-α, or the expression of HSP-70 in BMNCs to endotoxemia.

Enrollment: 8 patients

Sex: Male

Ages: 18 to 40 years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Healthy young males

Exclusion criteria

• Any kind of acute or chronic diseases

Trial design

Primary purpose: Basic Science

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Crossover Assignment

Masking: Double Blind

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8 participants in 2 patient groups, including a placebo group

1

Experimental group

Treatment:

Dietary Supplement: alanine-glutamine infusion

2

Placebo Comparator group

Treatment:

Dietary Supplement: alanine-glutamine infusion