Poster presentation on L-Ornithine containing food at ESPEN 2015

KYOWA HAKKO BIO CO., LTD. (President and CEO: Chikakuni Kotani), will have a presentation titled ‘Long term supplementation with L-Ornithine*1 enriched nutrition in Japanese patients with pressure ulcer’ at ESPEN 2015.

Date: September 6th, 2015
Time: 9:00 a.m. - 18:00 p.m.
Program number: SUN-PP175
Place: The international Congress Centre of Lisbon (CCL)

Summary
Elderly patients with pressure ulcers are at increased risk of impaired healing because of insufficient food intake. In previous study, we have demonstrated that oral administration of L-Ornithine accelerated pressure ulcer healing in an animal model. In this study, the effects of long term supplementation with L-Ornithine enriched nutrition have been investigated on wound healing and nutritional status of Japanese elderly patients.
The subjects were 10 Japanese elderly patients with pressure ulcers of Shea’s Pressure Sore Classification stage II or more. They received L-Ornithine enriched nutrition (2.5 g/day L-Ornithine containing) for 8 weeks, and progression toward healing of pressure ulcers was assessed using DESIGN-R®, the pressure ulcer monitoring scale, developed as a clinical wound assessment tool by the Scientific Education Committee of the Japanese Society of Pressure Ulcers (JSPU). Patient nutritional status was also observed.
The DESIGN-R® total score, which comprehensively reflects the severity of pressure ulcers, was lower in every patient after 8 weeks of nutritional supplementation than at 0 week. Furthermore, the average of urinary 3-methyl-Histidine concentration tended to decrease after 8 weeks of nutritional supplementation, suggesting that L-Ornithine suppressed the muscle protein catabolism induced by the pressure ulcers.
In conclusion, L-Ornithine enriched nutrition improved wound healing and nutritional state in Japanese elderly patients with pressure ulcers.

Term
^*1　L-Ornithine: L-Ornithine is a non-proteinogenic amino acid metabolized from L-Arginine. L-Ornithine-L-Aspartate　has been used as hepatic encephalopathy therapy for ammonia detoxification. L-Ornithine has many functions in common with L-Arginine, including protein synthesis promotion via growth hormone. Furthermore, L-Ornithine is considered a precursor of L-Proline, a major component of collagen, at the site of wound healing. It may also be a precursor of polyamines.

Reference
J Jpn Soc Clin Nutr, 36 (4) 182-187, 2014

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