Radiotherapy plays an important role in
cancer treatment, although it may cause collateral effects and sever complications due to cellular damage of peritumoral tissues. Recently different nutritional resources have been indicated to achieve intestinal protection during
cancer irradiation. The aim of this study was to set the role of
glutamine in acute actinic
enteritis prevention. Sixty-five Wistar male rats (200 g) were maintained in individual metabolic cages, where
body weight and food ingestion were carefully monitored daily. The animals were chosen at random in three groups and fed isocaloric and isoproteid diets: 1) CRt (23)-polymeric-
casein diet (CD); 2) GRt (22)-polymeric-
casein diet supplemented with 2%
glutamine (GD), and 3) ERt (20)--elemental diet supplemented with 2%
glutamine (ED). After an adaptation period (seven days), all rats received 1500 cGy of abdominal radiation in five equal daily doses of 300 cGy. After three days post radiation the rats were submitted to jejunal perfusion test with
polyethylene-glicol 4000. Finally, small bowel and colon were resected for histological evaluation. It was observed that ERt group had greater average daily food intake than CRt and GRt groups during all periods (p < 0.05). All rats had equal
weight gain during adaptation period; during irradiation all the animals had
weight loss, but ERt group had smaller
weight loss than CRt. All rats recovered weight after irradiation, and ERt group presented better results than the others (p < 0.05).
Sodium transepithelial transport average values (mEq/min/cm) were negative and not statistically different in all groups. Small bowel histological evaluation in ERt and GRt rats were better than CRt rats, by preserving mucosal cellularity and increasing mitosis number and villi length (p < 0.05). Simultaneously, ERt group had greater number of rats with normal villuscrypt relation than CRt of CRt groups (p < 0.05). Large bowel histological data showed that the average crypt's length in ERt and GRt rats were greater than in CRt ones (p < 0.05). By the present work, an elemental diet enriched with 2%
glutamine favored greater food ingestion and lessened
weight loss during and after
radiotherapy.
Glutamine-supplemented polymeric or elemental diets given to rats before, during and after abdominal
radiotherapy showed protective effects against
radiation injury, by supporting mucosal structure and recovery.