10 Facts About Glutamine

Glutamine is an a-amino acid that is used in the biosynthesis of proteins.

Glutamine plays a role in a variety of biochemical functions:.

Glutamine maintains redox balance by participating in glutathione synthesis and contributing to anabolic processes such as lipid synthesis by reductive carboxylation.

Glutamine is produced industrially using mutants of Brevibacterium flavum, which gives ca.

Glutamine is synthesized by the enzyme glutamine synthetase from glutamate and ammonia.

Glutamine is released, in small amounts, by the lungs and brain.

Glutamine is the most abundant naturally occurring, nonessential amino acid in the human body, and one of the few amino acids that can directly cross the blood–brain barrier.

Glutamine is marketed as medical food and is prescribed when a medical professional believes a person in their care needs supplementary glutamine due to metabolic demands beyond what can be met by endogenous synthesis or diet.

Glutamine contains an a-amino group which is in the protonated -NH3 form under biological conditions and a carboxylic acid group which is in the deprotonated -COO form, known as carboxylate, under physiological conditions.

Glutamine supplementation was thought to have potential to reduce complications in people who are critically ill or who have had abdominal surgery but this was based on poor quality clinical trials.