Blood Glutamine Concentration Increase After Blood Donation in Healthy Dogs

Abstract

Blood transfusion is an important practice in canine medicine because many diseases are associated with anemia and blood loss. Glutamine and glutamate are major carriers of nitrogen, carbon and energy in mammalian blood. The aim of this research was to evaluate possible changes in blood GLN and GLU in dogs after blood donation. Twelve Grayhound dogs (~5yo) were sampled before (pre‐test) and 1, 7, 14 and 30 days after donating blood. The dogs were drawn 450 mL of blood per donation. The [GLN] and [GLU] were measured by enzimatic assays and data were analyzed by ANOVA, for repeated measurements, and Tukey's test, with P<0.05, to compare all results. Results showed that [GLU] were not different in any samples. In contrast, [GLN] increased from pre‐test levels, 0.603±0.040mol/mL, to 0.728±0.036 mol/mL after 1 day, and to (0.755±0.041mol/mL) after 14days. Even after 30 days the blood [GLN] (0.671+0.043mol/mL) did not return to pre‐blood donation concentrations. Results indicate that either glutamine synthesis has increased or glutamine utilization has decreased and indicate that further research is required to determine the significance of these findings.