Structure of Glutamine

This is the structure of glutamine, the structure of amino acid is composed by 4 elements- carbon, hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen. Normally general amino acid contains one amidogens As you can see, glutamine contains two amidogens. The existence of the two amidogens makes glutamine function differently from other amino acids. So, what is the effect that glutamine has? What is the difference between glutamine and other amino acids? The first is that glutamine transports substance containing nitrogen. As the display earlier that it contains two amidogens in its structure. The composition of the two amidogens contains the element of nitrogen and through these two amidogens, it can transport the substances containing nitrogen from organs in the body to discharge.

When the concentration of the amidogen is very high, it becomes toxic towards cells. The high concentration of the amidoges can be harmful to the function of nomal cells. Thus, through glutamine, the amidogen is transported away to other places in the body that can metabolize or discharge it. Furthermore, it can transfer the amidogen to other intermediate metabolite. That is why it can compose some non-essential amino acid inside the body or transform into other substances containing nitrogen. Other than that, glutamine can maintain the antioxidant capacity in the cell. The maintenance of antioxidant capacity is very important because our daily metabolism and a lot of oxidation in our body through the oxygen we breathe in will generate a lot of free radicals.

If these free radicals is accumulated in our body It will damage cells and cause many diseases. How can we balance the generation of free radicals? You must have enough antioxidant to balance and to eliminate these free radicals. The maintenance of antioxidant capacity is very important for the normal maintenance of the whole physical function. Glutamine is the precursor of antioxidant. When there is more glutamine existing in the body, it can compose more antioxidant substance to maintain the antioxidant capacity in the cell.

In addition, glutamine can be transformed and then it can get rid of one or two amidogens before transforming into some intermediate metabolites and then compose some other substances in response to the demand of the body For instance, when our body needs more glucose, it can be transformed into dextrose water through gluconeogenesis. It can be transformed into various intermediate metabolites inside the body according to the demand. Glutamine has another important feature. Glutamine is the main source of energy for fast-growing cells or division cells. For the general cells, glucose might be the most important energy source. However, for fast-growing cells or cell in the division, these cells utilize energy from glutamine more than glucose.

Thus, glutamine is a very important energy source for them. We can also that energy from glutamine can promote cell growth and proliferation.