Effect of Glutamine Supplementation on Intestinal Mucosal Protein,DNA and Mucosal Morphology of Early-Weaned Piglets

Forty piglets weaned at 21 days age were randomly assigned to one of two groups. The treatmentgroup contained 1.2 % glutamine. The diets were calculated to be isonitrogenous and isoenergetic, each treat-ment contained five replicates of four piglets. Five piglets from each dietary treatment were killed at 35 daysand 49 days age. The results showed that dietary glutamine supplementation increased jejunal DNA content ofpiglets in the treatment group at 35 days and 49 days age. There was no significant change of ileum DNA con-tent and intestinal protein content between the treatment and control ones. Dietary glutamine supplementationincreased mucosal thickness of piglets in treatment group markedly at 35 days age. The intestinal villus heightswere significantly higher in treatment than that in control. The results of electron micrograph showed that di-etary glutamine supplementation prevented deterioration of intestinal epithelium, and maintained normal in-testinal microvillus structure. The results suggested that glutamine supplementation prevented villus atrophy,and had protective effect on intestinal structure.