Cytokine responses in very low birth weight infants receiving glutamine-enriched enteral nutrition.

Objective: Very low birth weight (VLBW) infants receiving glutamine-enriched enteral nutrition may present with a lower infection rate, which may result from enhanced antimicrobial innate or Th1 cytokine responses. We investigated whether glutamine-enriched enteral nutrition in VLBW infants increased these cytokine responses following in vitro stimulation of whole blood cells.

Methods: In a double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomized controlled trial, VLBW infants (gestational age <32 weeks and/or birth weight <1500 g) received enteral glutamine supplementation (0.