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Related Experiment Videos

Glutamine: an anaplerotic precursor.

Joanna L Bowtell1, Mark Bruce

  • 1Sport and Exercise Science Research Centre, South Bank University, London, UK. bowteljl@sbu.ac.uk

Nutrition (Burbank, Los Angeles County, Calif.)
|March 8, 2002
PubMed
Summary

Oral glutamine supplementation increased tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle intermediates during exercise. However, this did not enhance endurance capacity, suggesting TCA intermediates may not limit exercise performance.

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Area of Science:

  • Exercise Physiology
  • Metabolic Biochemistry

Background:

  • Exercise increases tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle intermediates up to four-fold.
  • Intramuscular glutamate decline and alanine increase suggest glutamate is an anaplerotic precursor during exercise.
  • TCA cycle flux and oxidative metabolism may be limited by intermediate concentrations.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate if oral glutamine supplementation enhances exercise-induced TCA cycle intermediate pool expansion.
  • To determine if glutamine supplementation affects endurance capacity or metabolic markers of exercise intensity.

Main Methods:

  • Participants ingested glutamine, ornithine alpha-ketoglutarate, or placebo.
  • Muscle concentrations of TCA cycle intermediates were measured at rest and during exercise.
  • Endurance capacity, phosphocreatine depletion, and lactate accumulation were assessed.

Main Results:

  • Ingestion of glutamine significantly increased the sum of muscle citrate, malate, fumarate, and succinate concentrations during exercise compared to placebo or ornithine alpha-ketoglutarate.
  • Neither endurance capacity nor markers of exercise intensity (phosphocreatine depletion, lactate accumulation) were altered by glutamine supplementation.

Conclusions:

  • Oral glutamine enhances the exercise-induced expansion of the TCA cycle intermediate pool.
  • TCA cycle intermediates do not appear to limit exercise flux under these conditions, or more intense exercise is needed to reveal such limitations.

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