The effect of enteral glutamine deprivation and supplementation on the structure of rat small-intestine mucosa during a systemic injury response.

BACKGROUND

An aseptic model of tissue injury (the induction of abscesses by subcutaneous injections of turpentine) was used to examine the proposal that changes in glutamine metabolism lead to structural damage in the epithelium of the small intestine during the systemic response to injury and to investigate the role of dietary glutamine in the maintenance of mucosal structure in the small intestine of control and injured rats.

METHODS

Glutamine-free and glutamine-rich (3.6% glutamine by weight) diets were fed to rats before and during an acute-phase response to injury. Pair-fed groups of animals enabled an independent assessment to be made of the effects of the associated dietary restriction on the mucosal epithelium.

RESULTS

Adaptive increases in villus height and crypt depth were seen in response to 4 days of feeding of the glutamine diet. Pair-feeding (30% dietary restriction) of either diet induced mucosal atrophy (loss of wet weight and nitrogen) without changes in villus height or crypt depth in the proximal tercile of the small intestine. Systemic injury, however, had no effect on the weight or nitrogen content of the mucosa (relative to pair-feeding). Gross histologic appearance, villus height, and crypt depth were also unchanged by the response to injury.

CONCLUSIONS

The study provided no evidence to support the proposal that alterations in the availability of dietary glutamine during systemic injury (induced by turpentine injections) lead to structural damage to the epithelium.