Glutamine as an immunoenhancing nutrient

New strategies for immunonutritional support include administration of special nutrients such as glutamine. Glutamine is important in several key metabolic processes of immune cells and enterocytes. Exogenous glutamine augments the functions of lymphocytes and macrophages. Neutrophils also reportedly utilize glutamine at a significant rate. Our recent studies demonstrated that glutamine enhances neutrophil function. This article focuses on the effects of glutamine on neutrophil function in surgical stress. Enteral glutamine administration enhanced peritoneal and hepatic bacterial clearance in our rat peritonitis model. Furthermore, IV glutamine supplementation improved the outcome of animals with severe surgical stress. Our in vitro study revealed that supplemental glutamine augmented the bacterial killing function of neutrophils from postoperative patients. Glutamine increased phagocytosis of the neutrophils. In addition, glutamine dose-dependently increased production of reactive oxygen intermediates (ROI) by neutrophils. Thus, our studies suggest that glutamine supplementation may improve bactericidal function of neutrophils by increasing both phagocytosis and ROI production. In conclusion, glutamine plays an important role in neutrophil function. Glutamine may be useful for the prevention, and treatment, of severe infection in critical illness and trauma.