It is accepted that L-glutamine plays a pivotal role in amino acid-induced mTOR signaling. While the more stable analogue, L-alanyl-L-glutamine (e.g., GlutaMax) is used as a superior replacement for L-glutamine in long-term cell cultures, it is less clear to me if L-alanyl-L-glutamine would participate in mTOR signaling with different kinetics as compared to L-glutamine when added acutely in cell culture. Has anyone performed, or is aware of, a comparison between L-alanyl-L-glutamine and L-glutamine in their ability to promote mTOR signaling? I would suspect that, as long as L-alanyl-L-glutamine was cleaved rapidly once intracellular, it would behave identical to L-glutamine, but I thought I'd ask.
Hello Brian,
They have different effects in my hands. I get significantly more spontaneous contractions when I use glutamine in my differentiation media as opposed to glutamax. This may be due to the fact that glutamine breaks down into ammonia and pyroglutamate which then can increase glutamate levels in the media. However, they seem to have the same effect on the mTOR pathway. Here is a paper.
Brian, in the paper that Juanita attached the authors conclude:
"Moreover, GlutaMAX, which is a stabilized form of glutamine with the structure of a dipeptide L-alanyl-L-glutamine, mimicked the effect of glutamine by reducing the phosphorylation of p70S6k and 4E-BP1 (Fig. 4B and C)."
So, it would appear at least in that study, there is no difference between the two.
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