Protective effect of citrulline on the intestinal mucosal barrier of mice during sepsis

Excessive inflammation caused by sepsis can disrupt gut mucosal barrier and aggravate sepsis. The purpose of the study was to confirm whether citrulline can protect the intestinal mucosal barrier during sepsis. Citrulline was used to pretreat the sepsis mouse model and then endotoxin levels, intestinal mucosal permeability, intestinal mucosal morphology and tight junction protein expression were detected to analyze the effect of citrulline on the gut barrier during sepsis. Statistics revealed that, the amount of endotoxin and intestinal mucosal penetration and the morphological score of the intestinal mucosa of septic mice with citrulline treatment were significantly decreased (P<0.05), while the claudin-1 and occludin protein expression levels were obviously increased in septic mice with citrulline treatment (P<0.05). This study defined the protective effect of citrulline on the intestinal mucosal barrier of septic mice. Future studies should examine whether it has the same effect on patients with sepsis.