Role of glutamine, as free or dipeptide form, on muscle recovery from resistance training: a review study

Abstract

Background: Glutamine plays a key role in several essential metabolic processes and is an important modulator of the heat shock protein (HSP) response, a crucial mechanism to maintain cellular homeostasis and to promote cell resistance to injury and death. This review summarized the effects of free l-glutamine or the dipeptide l-alanyl-l-glutamine upon muscle injury and inflammation, as well as muscle recovery from resistance training. Main body of the abstract: The 70-kDa HSP (HSP70) expression is enhanced by glutamine, via the hexosamine biosynthetic pathway, which inhibits the NF-κB pathway regenerating and recovering myofibers through the regulation of the early inflammatory response to muscle injury, which may be impaired by local and systemic inflammatory injury due to reduced intracellular levels of HSP70. Short conclusion: Studies show that chronic oral administration of free l-glutamine or the dipeptide can attenuate the injury and inflammation induced by intense aerobic and exhaustive exercise. However, the effects on muscle recovery from resistance training are unclear.