L-Glutamine is a polar, hydrophilic, conditionally essential α-amino acid, that forms the largest chunk among amino acids in serum. It has many functions in the maintenance of #mammalian cell culture owing to its chemical nature. Lets breeze through its attributes here!
Roles in cell culture:
#Glutamine serves as an energy source for cells that are rapidly dividing in vitro, cannot use glucose efficiently, or are in glucose deprived media.
It contains one nitrogen as an amide and another as an amine and delivers nitrogen to cells in quantities that would be regarded as toxic as free #ammonium ions.
Glutamine N is used in the synthesis of the vitamins #NAD and #NADP, purine nucleotides, #CTP from #UTP and #asparagine and to produce carbamyl phosphate for the synthesis of #pyrimidines.
L-Glutamic acid generated from catabolism of L-Glutamine serves as a precursor for synthesis of alpha amino acids.
L-Glutamine acts as a growth-limiting amino acid in culture media and hence is required at a 5- to 20-fold greater concentration than other amino acids.
L-glutamine is unstable at physiological pH in liquid media. As an alternative, various modified versions as dipeptides are available commercially. Sánchez‑Kopper et al investigated the uptake and metabolism of various glutamine dipeptides by #CHO cells, and demonstrated that Glycyl-L-Glutamine is taken up at a lower rate than L-Alanyl-L-Glutamine, resulting in a slightly reduced growth rate but a higher antibody titer possibly due to lowered accumulation of #ammonia and #LacticAcid.
It has also been found to protect the cells by involving the expression of heat shock proteins.
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