Therapeutic role of glutamine in inflammatory bowel disease
The concept that dietary elements may serve as modulators of intestinal physiology and the gut’s response to stress or injury has been hypothesized for many years. The gut is an attractive target for dietary modulation, owing to its direct exposure to nutritional elements orally/enterally delivered, participation in cellular uptake and metabolism of nutrients, and high plasticity in response to nutritional stimuli. Many physiological and pathological states affecting the gut are suggested to be sensitive to nutritional modulation, including intestinal adaptation during the life cycle (e.g., growth, weaning, old age), following nutritional stresses (e.g., re-feeding after malnutrition, intravenous feeding), inammatory injuries (e.g., inammatory bowel disease [IBD]) and a variety of chronic or acute insults (e.g., cancer chemotherapy/radiotherapy, surgical resection, ischemia-reperfusion injury).
