Effect of Glutamine Supplementation on Diarrhea, Interleukin-8 and Secretory Immunoglobulin A in Children With Acute Diarrhea

Placebo-controlled interventional study in otherwise healthy children 6 to 24 months old admitted with acute diarrhea in Ankara, Turkey. The glutamine group included 63 children, with 65 children in the placebo group for the main outcome comparisons.

Oral L-glutamine capsules were given at 0.3 g/kg/day (about 3-4 g/day) in three divided daily doses for 7 days. The active product was Power Glutamine®; placebo capsules contained cornstarch.

Glutamine shortened diarrhea duration, but it did not improve serum IL-8 or salivary secretory IgA relative to placebo. Diarrheal duration after treatment was 3.40 ± 1.96 days with glutamine versus 4.57 ± 2.48 days with placebo (P = 0.004), and total duration of diarrhea was 6.90 ± 3.24 versus 8.29 ± 3.39 days (P = 0.020). Diarrhea persisted at 7 days in 5/63 (7.9%) versus 13/65 (20.0%) children (P = 0.088). Serum IL-8 and salivary IgA changed from baseline, but between-group comparisons were not significant at day 7.

The trial was single-center and relatively small, which limits precision and generalizability. Treatment and biomarker follow-up were short, and several secondary clinical outcomes were not statistically significant. The immune-marker findings did not differ between groups, so the mechanism for benefit remains indirect and uncertain.