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

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Abstract

Intestinal glutamine utilization is integral to mucosal regeneration. We analyzed the systemic and intestinal glutamine status in Crohn’s disease (CD) and evaluated the therapeutic effect of glutamine supplementation in an animal model of ileitis. In CD, glutamine concentrations were decreased systemically and in noninflamed and inflamed ileal/colonic mucosa. Mucosal glutaminase activities were depressed in the ileum independent of inflammation but were not different from controls in the colon. In experimental ileitis, oral glutamine feeding prevented macroscopic inflammation, enhanced ileal and colonic glutaminase activities above controls, and normalized the intestinal glutathione redox status. However, glutamine supplementation enhanced myeloperoxidase activity along the gastrointestinal tract and potentiated lipid peroxidation in the colon. In conclusion, glutamine metabolism is impaired in CD. In experimental ileitis, glutamine supplementation prevents inflammatory tissue damage. In the colon, however, which does not use glutamine as its principal energy source, immune enhancement of inflammatory cells by glutamine increases oxidative tissue injury.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Surgery, Ruprecht-Karls University, Heidelberg, Germany

    Bernd Sido & Cornelia Seel

  2. Department of Internal Medicine II, Ruprecht-Karls University, Heidelberg, Germany

    Achim Hochlehnert

  3. Department of Anesthesiology, Johann Wolfgang Goethe University, Frankfurt/Main, Germany

    Raoul Breitkreutz

  4. Department of Immunochemistry, German Cancer Research Center, Heidelberg, Germany

    Wulf Dröge

  5. Department of General Surgery, University of Heidelberg, Im Neuenheimer Feld 110, D-69120, Heidelberg, Germany

    Bernd Sido

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  1. Bernd Sido
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  2. Cornelia Seel
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  3. Achim Hochlehnert
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  4. Raoul Breitkreutz
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  5. Wulf Dröge
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Correspondence to Bernd Sido.

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Supported by grants from the University of Heidelberg (BS) and the German Cancer Research Center (WD; project 072006).

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Sido, B., Seel, C., Hochlehnert, A. et al. Low Intestinal Glutamine Level and Low Glutaminase Activity in Crohn’s Disease: A Rational for Glutamine Supplementation?. Dig Dis Sci 51, 2170–2179 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10620-006-9473-x

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