Glutamine supplementation in neonates: is there a future?

Glutamine takes center stage in Professor Joseph Neu’s talk on how to provide optimal nutrition to premature infants. Neu starts off by outlining the actions of glutamine in improving intestinal barrier function and as an immune modulator that can alleviate systemic inflammation. This leads to a paradox in the glutamine hypothesis: although the collective body of evidence indicates that glutamine does have important benefits in animal models and in adult humans, several pediatric studies showed no apparent effects of glutamine supplementation in premature infants. Neu digs deeper into the data from these studies, and points out secondary findings that were initially overlooked.