Maintenance of Skeletal Muscle Intracellular Glutamine during Standard Surgical Trauma

1985 
Skeletal muscle glutamine (GLN) concentration falls following injury and infection. In an attempt to prevent this decline and to characterize its influence on the efflux of amino acid (AA) from skeletal muscle, we administered varying quantities of AA (0, 2, and 4 g/kg·day) as saline or AA solutions with or without GLN enrichment to 22 postoperative dogs. Plasma and muscle AA were determined before and 24 hr after standard laparotomy. Hindquarter AA efflux was measured at 6 and 24 hr. Skeletal muscle nitrogen declined in saline controls (69.8 ± 8.5 us 52.8 ± 8.4 mmol/liter; p < 0.01), largely due to the fall in intracellular GLN (21.48 ± 3.21 us 15.86 ± 3.80; p < 0.05). Similar alterations were seen in the animals receiving 2 g/kg. However, both intracellular nitrogen and GLN were maintained in animals receiving 4 g/kg, whether the AA solutions contained GLN or not (skeletal muscle nitrogen before 64.3 ± 8.6 mmol/l vs 65.4 ± 7.0 after, GLN 19.2 ± 3.4 vs 19.9 ± 3.0). Hindquarter AA efflux was reduced in th...
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