AJP - Endocrinology and Metabolism, Vol 272, Issue 4 E621-E627, Copyright © 1997 by American Physiological Society

ARTICLES

Steady-state and non-steady-state measurements of plasma glutamine turnover in humans

M. E. Kreider, M. Stumvoll, C. Meyer, D. Overkamp, S. Welle and J. Gerich
Department of Medicine, University of Rochester School of Medicine, New York 14642, USA.

To compare steady-state glutamine turnover using nitrogen, carbon, and hydrogen tracers and to test the validity of monocompartmental equations to determine plasma glutamine turnover under non-steady-state conditions, we infused 10 normal postabsorptive volunteers simultaneously with [3,4-3H]glutamine, [2-15N]glutamine, and [U-14C]glutamine for 4 h to isotopic steady state. Eight of the ten subjects were subsequently infused in a stepwise fashion with exogenous glutamine. Plasma glutamine enrichment and specific activities fit a monoexponential model well (r = 0.89, 0.92, and 0.92 for [2-15N]-, [U-14C]-, and [3,4-3H]glutamine, respectively). Volumes of distribution for each tracer (362 +/- 58, 433 +/- 51, and 446 +/- 63 ml/kg) and the transfer rate constants (0.0224 +/- 0.0020, 0.0222 +/- 0.0020, and 0.0240 +/- 0.0023 min(-1)) for [2-15N]-, [U-14C]-, and [3,4-3H]glutamine, respectively, were not significantly different from one another. However, turnover of glutamine determined with [3,4-3H]glutamine (6.14 +/- 0.54 micromol x kg(-1) x min(-1)) exceeded that determined with [U-14C]glutamine (5.72 +/- 0.541 micromol x kg(-1) x min(-1); P < 0.03), which in turn exceeded that determined with [2-15N]glutamine (4.67 +/- 0.39 micromol x kg(-1) x min(-1), P < 0.01). The monocompartmental non-steady-state equations of both DeBodo et al. (DeBodo, R., R. Steele, A. Dunn, and J. Bishop. Rec. Prog. Horm. Res. 19: 445-448, 1963) and Finegood et al. (Finegood, D., R. Bergman, and M. Vranic. Diabetes 36: 914-924, 1987) yielded acceptable approximations of predicted rates of glutamine plasma appearance with deviations from predicted rates from 0.2 to 1.6% (Finegood et al.) and from 0.1 to 8.2% (DeBodo et al.). Use of a 0.75 pool fraction most closely approximated predicted rates.

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