Glutamine is a nonessential amino acid and is the most abundant amino acid in the body. It is formed from glutamate using the enzyme glutamine synthetase.
Approximately 80% of glutamine is found in the skeletal muscle, and this concentration is 30 times higher than the amount of glutamine found in human plasma. Although glucose is used as fuel for many tissues in the body, glutamine is the main fuel source for a large number of cells including lymphocytes, neutrophils, macrophages, and enterocytes.
Glutamine is necessary for many physiologic processes including:
- growth of fibroblasts, lymphocytes, and enterocytes
- protein synthesis
- mitosis
- muscle growth
- immune function
- glutathione formation
- nucleotide synthesis
- apoptosis prevention
- regulation of acid-base homeostasis
- glutamate metabolism
- inter-organ nitrogen exchange via ammonia transport
- gluconeogenesis
- energy generation (ATP)
Decreased protein intake, GI malabsorption, and maldigestion can contribute to overall lower amino acid levels. However, given the extensive role of glutamine throughout the body, increased metabolic demand can also result in lower levels.
Glutamine is considered a conditionally essential amino acid in critically ill patients. Endogenous glutamine synthesis does not meet the body’s demands in catabolic conditions including cancer, sepsis, infections, surgeries, traumas, and during intense and prolonged physical exercise.
Low plasma glutamine is associated with increased mortality and functional impairment in critically ill patients. Glutamine administration reduces infection-related morbidity, decreases mortality during the intensive care phase, and shortens the length of hospitalization.
Understand and improve your laboratory results with our health dashboard.
Upload your lab reports and get your interpretation today.
Our technology helps to understand, combine, track, organize, and act on your medical lab test results.
High protein intake may contribute to higher levels.
It should also be noted that glutamine is available as a nutraceutical supplement. Elevations can also be seen with supplementation. The metabolism of glutamine requires several cofactors, such as NADPH and vitamin B1.
Functional deficiencies of vitamin and mineral cofactors can also elevate levels. There is literature to suggest vitamin B1 supplementation lowers elevated levels of glutamine, as well as other amino acids in thiamine deficiency.
Because of the relationship of glutamine and glutamate to both the Cahill Cycle and Urea Cycle, elevations of glutamine are associated with hyperammonemia due to increased production of glutamine from glutamate.
Interpret Your Lab Results
Upload your lab report, and we'll interpret and provide you with recommendations today.
Get Started
Monthly plan
Annual plan
Own it for life
Our exclusive data entry service is a convenient way to get your results into your private dashboard. Simply attach an image or a file of your lab test results, and one of our qualified data entry team members will add the results for you. We support all sorts of files, whether PDFs, JPGs, or Excel. This service is excellent whether you have a lot of reports to upload or are too busy to do the data entry yourself.
We strive to make the data entry process easy for you. Whether by offering dozens of templates to choose from that pre-populate the most popular laboratory panels or by giving you instant feedback on the entered values. Our data entry forms are an easy, fast, and convenient way to enter the reports yourself. There is no limit on how many lab reports you can upload.
$15 /month
billed every month
Most popular
Data entry included
$79 /year
$6.60/month billed annually
Data entry included
$250 /once
own it for life
Are You a Health Professional?
Get started with our professional plan
Welcome to Healthmatters Pro.
Save time on interpreting lab results with the largest database of biomarkers online. In-depth research on any test at your fingertips, all stored and tracked in one place. Learn more
Pro Monthly Plus
for health professionals
$75 per month
At HealthMatters, we're committed to maintaining the security and confidentiality of your personal information. We've put industry-leading security standards in place to help protect against the loss, misuse, or alteration of the information under our control. We use procedural, physical, and electronic security methods designed to prevent unauthorized people from getting access to this information. Our internal code of conduct adds additional privacy protection. All data is backed up multiple times a day and encrypted using SSL certificates. See our Privacy Policy for more details.
1-Methylhistidine, 3-Methylhistidine, a-Amino-N-butyric Acid, a-Aminoadipic Acid, Alanine, Arginine, Asparagine, Aspartic Acid, b-Alanine, b-Aminoisobutyric Acid, Citrulline, Cyst(e)ine, Cystathionine, Ethanolamine, g-Aminobutyric Acid, Glutamic Acid, Glutamine, Glycine, Histidine, Isoleucine, Leucine, Lysine, Methionine, Ornithine, Phenylalanine, Phosphoethanolamine, Phosphoserine, Proline, Sarcosine, Serine, Taurine, Threonine, Tryptophan, Tyrosine, Urea, Valine
