Effect of Parenteral Glutamine on theRestoration of the Lymphocyte Sub-population after High-dosage Chemotherapywith Autologous Transplantation of Haematopoietic Cells: Data from a Double BlindRandomized Study

Overview

Within the framework of a randomized double blind study focused on the effect of glutamine on theclinical course of autologous transplantation of peripheral cells the authors assessed lymphocytesub-populations (CD3, CD4, CD8, CD19 and CD57+ cells) before transplantation and 14, 28 and 42days after transplantation. A total of 36 patients were investigated (18 glutamine, 18 placebo). In thewhole group of patients the authors found restoration of CD4 and CD19 cells to pretransplantationvalues one day +42 after transplantation, in CD8 and CD57 cells a statistically significant increaseas compared with the pre-transplantation state occurred. In the glutamine group they observed onday +28 a more rapid restoration of CD8 and a marginally better restoration of CD19 positive cells,while patients who were given placebo restored CD57+ cells more rapidly. All these differences werebalanced on day +42, only CD19+ cells were at that time marginally higher in the placebo group.With the exception of CD19+ lymphocytes the authors observed weak correlations between thenumber of lymphocytes on day +42 after transplantation and the number of transplanted CD34+cells. It may thus be stated that the drop of lymphocyte sub-populations has a short-term character,the restoration correlates among others with the administered amount of haematopoietic cells.Significant importance of glutamine for the restoration of the lymphocyte sub-population washowever not proved.

Key words:
autologous transplantation – lymphocytes – flow cytometry – glutamine.