Effect of Glutamine Supplemented Nutrition Support on Protein and Glutamine Metabolism in Burns

Human and animal studies have demonstrated that glutamine catabolism exceeds glutamine synthesis in burn patients, resulting in a glutamine-depleted status, which compromises liver function, including glutathione status, proline and arginine homeostasis and whole body protein balance (1). The purpose of this study is to directly quantify glutamine / glutamate kinetics in relation to glutamine / glutamate disposal and whole body amino acid balance, by using stable isotope tracers [1-13C, 15N]leucine and [15N2]urea.

We hypothesize that the enrichment of amino acid mixtures with glutamine will attenuate overall body nitrogen catabolism and better maintain proline and arginine homeostasis.

The purpose of this study it to 1) investigate the effect of glutamine supplemented total parenteral nutrition (TPN) on whole body metabolic and disposal rate of glutamine, and its rate of de novo synthesis in severely burned patients and 2)explore the impact of glutamine supplementation on whole body protein turnover, studied with L-[1-13C, 15N}-leucine, and on the metabolic homeostasis of urea cycle.