Xu CL, Sun R, Qiao XJ, Xu CC, Shang XY, Niu WN. Protective effect of glutamine on intestinal injury and bacterial community in rats exposed to hypobaric hypoxia environment. World J Gastroenterol 2014; 20(16): 4662-4674 [PMID: 24782618 DOI: 10.3748/wjg.v20.i16.4662]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Chun-Lan Xu, Associate Professor, The Key Laboratory for Space Bioscience and Biotechnology, School Life Sciences, Northwestern Polytechnical University, 127 Youyixi Road, Xi’an 710072, Shaanxi province, China. clxu@nwpu.edu.cn
Research Domain of This Article
Gastroenterology & Hepatology
Article-Type of This Article
Original Article
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Chun-Lan Xu, Rui Sun, Xiang-Jin Qiao, Cui-Cui Xu, Xiao-Ya Shang, Wei-Ning Niu, The Key Laboratory for Space Bioscience and Biotechnology, School of Life Sciences, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi’an 710072, Shaanxi Province, China
Author contributions: Xu CL conceived and designed the study; Sun R, Qiao XJ and Xu CC performed the experiments; Sun R analyzed the data; Shang XY and Niu WN contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools; Xu CL wrote the manuscript.
Supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China, No. 31001012 and No. 31101304; Programs for Agricultural Science and Technology Development of Shaanxi Province, China, No. 2013K02-16; and Northwestern Polytechnical University Foundation Science Research Fund, No. JC201278
Correspondence to: Chun-Lan Xu, Associate Professor, The Key Laboratory for Space Bioscience and Biotechnology, School Life Sciences, Northwestern Polytechnical University, 127 Youyixi Road, Xi’an 710072, Shaanxi province, China. clxu@nwpu.edu.cn
Telephone: +86-29-88460543 Fax: +86-29-88460332
Received: November 22, 2013 Revised: January 19, 2014 Accepted: February 17, 2014 Published online: April 28, 2014
Core Tip
Core tip: Gastrointestinal problems at high altitudes are common. Gut microbes may also play an important role in host health. Glutamine has been demonstrated to be an important source of fuel for the gut. In the study, we investigated the protective effect of glutamine on intestinal barrier damage induced by hypobaric hypoxia. The research provides a basic understanding of possible mechanism of hypobaric hypoxia-induced damage of intestinal barrier function and bacterial community imbalance. The altered bacterial communities in the intestine and the toll-like receptor 4/myeloid differentiation factor 88/nuclear factor-κB signal pathway may represent the significant therapeutic targets for the prevention/treatment of intestinal barrier dysfunction and consequent intestinal diseases.
