Effects of Dietary Glutamine and Glutamate Supplementation on Small Intestinal Structure, Active Absorption and DNA, RNA Concentrations in Skeletal Muscle Tissue of Weaned Piglets during d 28 to 42 of Age

Pigs were offspring of Hubei WhiteLarge White, and were obtained from the Experimental Swine Center of Huazhong Agricultural University. They were nursed by their mothers until 28 d of age. At the time of weaning, littermates were randomly assigned to dietary treatments to ensure that genetic effects would be balanced across treatments. In all experiments, pigs had free access to water and corn-and soybean meal-based diets supplemented with 0.0 or 1.0% free L-Gln or L-Glu (table 1) for 14 days.