Basic Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2019. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Hepatol. Mar 27, 2019; 11(3): 273-286
Published online Mar 27, 2019. doi: 10.4254/wjh.v11.i3.273
Protective action of glutamine in rats with severe acute liver failure
Elizângela G Schemitt, Renata M Hartmann, Josieli R Colares, Francielli Licks, Jéferson O Salvi, Cláudio A Marroni, Norma P Marroni
Elizângela G Schemitt, Renata M Hartmann, Josieli R Colares, Francielli Licks, Jéferson O Salvi, Cláudio A Marroni, Norma P Marroni, Laboratory of Experimental Hepatology and Gastroenterology, Hospital de Clínicas de Porto Alegre, Porto Alegre 90040060, Brazil
Elizângela G Schemitt, Renata M Hartmann, Josieli R Colares, Francielli Licks, Jéferson O Salvi, Norma P Marroni, Laboratory of Oxidative Stress and Antioxidants, Universidade Luterana do Brasil, Canoas 92425900, Brazil
Author contributions: Schemitt EG, Hartmann RM, Colares JR and Marroni NP contributed to study conception and design; Schemitt EG, Hartmann RM, Colares JR, Licks F and Salvi JO contributed to data acquisition, data analysis and interpretation, and writing of article; Schemitt EG, Marrini CA and Marroni NP contributed to editing and reviewing of article; all authors have read and approved of the final version of the article.
Supported by: FIPE/Hospital de Clinicas of Porto Alegre.
Institutional review board statement: This study was conducted at the Animal Experimentation Unit and the Laboratory of Experimental Hepatology and Gastroenterology, Hospital de Clínicas of Porto Alegre, after approval from the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee, No. CEUA 15-0175.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors have no conflicts of interest to disclose.
ARRIVE guidelines statement: The authors followed the ARRIVE checklist.
Open-Access: 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/
Corresponding author: Claudio A Marroni, PhD, Professor, Laboratory of Experimental Hepatology and Gastroenterology, Hospital de Clínicas de Porto Alegre, Rua José Kanan Aranha 102, Porto Alegre 90040060, Brazil. nmarroni@terra.com.br
Telephone: +55-51-999638306
Received: October 30, 2018
Peer-review started: October 30, 2018
First decision: December 21, 2018
Revised: January 29, 2019
Accepted: March 12, 2019
Article in press: March 12, 2019
Published online: March 27, 2019
Core Tip

Core tip: Severe acute liver failure (SALF) is a rare syndrome characterized by rapid deterioration of liver function, usually in patients without underlying liver disease; the only effective treatment is transplantation. In this study, we used thioacetamide (TAA), a known xenobiotic hepatotoxicant, to induce SALF in rats. This was followed by administration of glutamine in an attempt to activate antioxidative defenses via the erythroid 2-related factor 2 (Nrf2) pathway and mitigate liver injury. Glutamine successfully activated Nrf2 and inhibited TLR4/NFκB-mediated inflammation, allowing restoration of parenchymal architecture and recovery of several parameters to near-control levels.