Role of Immunonutrients in Critical Care

Speakers:

Juan Ochoa Gautier, MD, FACS, FCCM

Event date: 10 April 2024

Arginine is an essential amino acid for dogs, cats, birds, and fish, but is conditionally essential for humans and rodents. Found in multiple proteins, arginine can be acquired from the diet, recycled during protein turnover, and created endogenously in some species. 

Arginine may become depleted through malnutrition, sarcopenia, certain diseases such as cancer, and after surgery or trauma. Lack of arginine as a substrate for particular metabolic processes results in physiologic impairments that, in turn, lead to clinical disease. Arginine deficiency can also rapidly lead to severe metabolic abnormalities and immune dysfunction. 

In human medicine, research into arginine replacement therapy has shown beneficial effects. This session reviews arginine deficiency syndrome, the physiologic and clinical consequences of arginine deficiency, and studies investigating arginine replacement therapy in humans.