Depression of glutamine-stimulated uric acid production and blood glutamine accumulation by insulin in chickens.

This experiment was conducted to examine effects of insulin on glutamine accumulation in blood and uric acid production in the chicken infused with glutamine. Insulin pretreatment eliminated the stimulatory effect of glutamine infusion on urinary uric acid excretion in the chicken fed a 5% protein diet, which resulted in no increase in urinary total nitrogen excretion by the infusion. In the chicken fed a 20% protein diet the pretreatment with insulin did not have such clear depressive effects on the increases in urinary uric acid and total nitrogen excretion caused by the glutamine infusion. Insulin tended to depress the increases in plasma glutamine concentration caused by the infusion of glutamine at both levels of dietary protein intake.