Development of an intravenous glutamine supply through dipeptide technology.

Glutamine is considered as semi-essential amino acid during catabolic stress. Due to its chemical instability in aqueous solutions during heat sterilization and long term storage, it could not be added to infusion solutions so far. In contrast, the dipeptide glycl-L-glutamine exhibits all properties needed for use as glutamine derivative in parenteral nutrition. It is freely soluble in water and does not decompose during heat sterilization. The peptide undergoes rapid enzymatic hydrolysis after infusion. This results in perfect utilization. Glycyl-L-glutamine is already produced in large amounts by chemical synthesis techniques. Both chemical and optical purity of the dipeptide can be controlled by modern chromatographic methods. Glamin, a newly developed complete amino acid solution, contains 20 g of glutamine per liter in form of glycyl-L-glutamine. Since no additional free glycine is added, no imbalances are created by the amino-terminal amino acid of the peptide structure.