Glutamine supplements may help tiniest babies

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Very low-birth-weight infants given supplements of the amino acid glutamine have a reduced likelihood of developing eczema during the first year of life, researchers report.

However, glutamine-enriched feeds don't seem to do anything to prevent wheezing or infectious diseases, according to the report in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine.

Several studies of very low-birth-weight (VLBW) infants have investigated the effect of glutamine during the newborn period, note Dr. Anemone van den Berg, of VU University Medical Center, Amsterdam, and colleagues. "However, little is known about the long-term effects of this nutritional intervention."

The researchers evaluated babies born before 32 weeks gestation or with a birth weight less than 1500 grams. The infants were randomly assigned to glutamine supplementation or standard feeding from the third to the 30th day of life.

Of 90 surviving infants, 77 (86 percent) were included in the follow-up study. Thirty-seven of them were included in the glutamine-supplemented group and 40 were included in the comparison group. The average age of the infants at follow-up was 1.3 years.

Infants in the glutamine-supplemented group were 87 percent less likely to have eczema than those in the control group, the investigators found. However, no differences were observed between the groups in the occurrence of asthma-like wheezing, or respiratory or gastrointestinal infections.

"Glutamine supplementation in VLBW infants may lead to long-term health benefits," Dr. van den Berg and colleagues state. Further follow-up of this group of children, they say, "may contribute to a better understanding of the maturation of the immune system response and the role of glutamine supplementation in this process."

SOURCE: Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, November 2007.