Glutamine Lack Of Research On The Functional Impact Of The Newborn Rat Gastrointestinal Tract

Objectives To observe the changes of the intestinal tract of the maternal breast-fed newborn rats whom were deprived glutamine (Gln) by depressing glutamine synthetase in mother and/ or baby rats. Methods Newborn rats were divided into 5 groups. All rats were breast-fed. Group 1, the control group, consisted of rats and maternal rat without use of methionine sulfoximine (MS) . Group 2 consisted of rats with maternal use of MS through intraperitoneal injection from the 3^rd day of given birth for 6 days. Group 3 consisted of rats with maternal use of MS from the first day given birth for 6 days. Group 4 consisted rats whom used MS from the 3^rd day on, maternal rat used MS from the 3^rd day of given birth, both for 6 days. Group 5 consisted of rats whom used MS from the 3rd day of life until day 9, without maternal use of MS. All newborn rats were killed. Small intestine was harvested for morphological studies. Plasma Gln concentration was detected by high efficiency liquid chromatography. IL-1, TNF—αand MCP-1 levels had been determined on homogenate by ELISA. Results The plasma Gln concentration, the villus length, the MCP-1 and the IL-1βwere significantly different in each group (P<0.05). The control group has the highest plasma Gln concentration, following by group 5, 3, 2 and 4, respectively. The MCP-1 level has the same order with the highest level in the control group. The length of villus was the highest in group 5, following by group 3, 5, 2 and 4, respectively. The IL-1βhas the same order, with the highest level in the control group. There was no significant difference in TNF—αlevels between the groups. Conclusions Among the five groups, the plasma Gln concentration of the 4^th group was the lowest, with the shortest small intestinal villus, and the lowest levels of MCP-1 and IL-1. The 4^th group will be the most suitable animal model for Gln deficiency.