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Hepatic glutamine metabolism during endotoxemia in neonatal rats
Paisarn Vejchapipat1, Simon Eaton, Koji Fukumoto
1Surgery Unit, Institute of Child Health, Great Ormond Street Hospital, 30 Guilford Street, London, WC1N 1EH, United Kingdom.
Objectives:
The liver plays a central role during endotoxemia. We investigated the biochemical changes that occur in neonatal liver during early stages of endotoxemia.
Methods:
Twenty neonatal rats (10 to 15 d; n = 10/group) were studied. Endotoxemic rats received intraperitoneal injections of 300 microg/kg of 12.5 mg/L of lipopolysaccharide and control rats received isovolemic normal saline. Two hours after injection, all lipopolysaccharide-injected animals exhibited signs of endotoxemia. Livers were removed and extracted into 12% perchloric acid. 1H and 31P magnetic resonance spectroscopy measured hepatic levels of glutamine, glutamate, alanine, lactate, glucose, beta-hydroxybutyrate, adenosine triphosphate, and adenosine diphosphate. Unpaired t test compared groups.
Results:
No mortality occurred during the first 2 h after injection. Endotoxemia significantly decreased hepatic levels of glutamine (P < 0.001), glucose (P = 0.047), and beta-hydroxybutyrate (P < 0.001). There was no difference in hepatic levels of glutamate (P = 0.050), alanine (P = 0.165), lactate (P = 0.478), adenosine triphosphate (P = 0.165), and adenosine diphosphate (P = 0.136) between groups.
Conclusions:
Early endotoxemia caused significant changes in the hepatic metabolism of glutamine, glucose, and beta-hydroxybutyrate. These findings increase our understanding of the pathophysiology of neonatal endotoxemia.