Addition of glutamine does not improve protein synthesis and jejunal mucosa morphology in non-hypercatabolic stress.

To investigate the effect of glutamine-enriched total parenteral nutrition (TPN) on the protein synthesis and morphology of jejunal mucosa in non-hypercatabolic stress, sixty-two male Sprague-Dawley rats were subjected to surgical stress by femoral fracture. The rats were divided into 3 groups and received TPN for 8 days. One group received a standard amino acid solution without glutamine, the second group a standard solution enriched with glycine and glutamic acid, and the third group a standard solution enriched with glycyl-glutamine. All regimens were isocaloric and isonitrogenous-nitrogen (2.2 g/kg.day), glucose (150 Kcal/kg.day), and lipids (150 Kcal/kg.day). There were no statistically significant differences in jejunal mucosal thickness, DNA content, protein content, fractional synthesis rate or absolute protein synthesis among the groups after eight days of parenteral nutrition. In conclusion, the addition of glutamine to TPN did not influence either protein metabolism or morphology of the jejunal mucosa in non-hypercatabolic surgical stress.