X-Message-Number: 15458
Date: Fri, 26 Jan 2001 10:42:45 -0800 (PST)
From: Doug Skrecky <>
Subject: Vitrification: should glutamine be a standard additive?

Title
  Hypertonicity induces
  injury to cultured human endothelium: attenuation by
  glutamine.
Source
  Annals of Thoracic Surgery.  64(6):1770-5, 1997 Dec.
Abstract
  BACKGROUND: Although most preservation solutions as well as some cardioplegic
  solutions used for organ storage and transplantation are hypertonic, the
  effects of extracellular hypertonicity on endothelium are
  not well established. Aims of this study were to evaluate the response of
  cultured human saphenous vein endothelial cells to extracellular
  hypertonicity and to investigate the role of the amino acid
  glutamine in preventing endothelial damage in vitro. METHODS: Eight distinct
  strains of human saphenous vein endothelial cells were studied. Hypertonic
  (350 and 400 mosm/kg) media were obtained by supplementing culture medium
  with sucrose. Cell viability was assessed in the absence or the presence of
  glutamine through the determination of cell number and protein content of the
  cultures. Confocal microscopy of cells loaded with the fluorescent dye
  calcein was also performed. RESULTS: Exposure of human saphenous vein
  endothelial cells to hypertonic media without glutamine caused significant
  cell loss within 30 minutes. Cell loss progressed steadily during incubation
  and after 6 hours reached 50% at 350 mosm/kg and 65% at 400 mosm/kg. In the
  presence of 2 mmol/L glutamine, endothelial damage was completely prevented
  at 350 mosm/kg and significantly lessened at 400 mosm/kg compared with
  glutamine-free media. Confocal microscopy showed that most
  hypertonicity-treated cells exhibited the typical features
  of an apoptotic death and confirmed the osmoprotective effect of glutamine.
  CONCLUSIONS: These results indicate that the supplementation of hypertonic
  storage solutions with glutamine might exert a partial osmoprotective effect
  and suggest that the relationship between endothelial damage and tonicity of
  storage and cardioplegic solutions should be carefully investigated.

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