(The FASEB Journal. 2007;21:705.8)
© 2007 FASEB
Dietary glutamine supplementation enhances ex vivo canine peripheral blood lymphocyte response.
Christina Khoo1,
Rula AE Abu-Jaradeh2,
Joan E Cunnick3 and
Kathy L Gross1
1 Nutrition Technology, Hill’s Pet Nutrition, Inc, PO Box 1658, Topeka, KS, 66601,
2 Microbiology,
3 Animal Science, Iowa State University, 207 Science I, Ames, IA, 50011
ABSTRACT
Glutamine is a conditionally essential amino acid during conditions of stress. The objective of this study is to evaluate the efficacy of a hydrolyzed wheat source of glutamine at different levels on the peripheral blood lymphocytes (PBL) response in dogs. The dogs were randomized into 4 groups of 5 animals each and fed a complete and balanced control food, and food with three test levels of the hydrolyzed source, with glutamine at 1%, 2% and 4% of the food (DM basis as calculated) for two weeks. PBL were tested ex vivo using ConA (0.5 µg/ml, 2.5µg/ml, 10µg/ml), PHA (1.5 µg/ml, 2.5µg/ml) and PWM (0.5 µg/ml, 2.5 µg/ml). There was a significant effect of food but no effect of mitogen dose, or dietary treatment by mitogen dose interaction for all the mitogens. The data was collapsed across doses for each mitogen to show the significant effect of glutamine supplementation on the PBL response. Dietary supplementation of 1% glutamine showed maximum PBL response and was significantly different from control when stimulated with ConA and PWM (p<0.05). There was no significant difference between supplementation at 1 or 2% but the response was significantly lower at 4% (p<0.01). These results were consistent across all mitogen treatments. The results suggested that glutamine, as supplied by the hydrolyzed source, was efficacious at 1–2% but supplementation at 4% was not beneficial.
