Can daily dietary arginine supplement affect the function and subpopulation of lymphocytes in patients with advanced gastric cancer? Wu C-W, Chi C-W, Chiu C-C, Liu W-Y, P'eng F-K and Wang S-R. Digestion 1993; 54: 118-124.

The effect of arginine on lymphocyte proliferation in vitro was studied in patients with advanced gastric cancer. Patients who were ambulatory, normally nourished and consuming a normal diet, received a daily supplement of 30 g arginine for 7 days. There was no change in total lymphocyte count, T B cell ratio in peripheral blood, or an enhancement of lymphocyte proliferation in response to mitogen stimulation. Arginine ingestion did not impair liver function and had no detectable side effects except transient nausea in one patient. An in vitro study on the effect of arginine on phytohaemagglutination-stimulated lymphocyte proliferation showed that lymphocytes from gastric cancer patients had poorer responses than obtained from normal subjects despite the supplement in the culture medium with normal serum, patient serum, or fetal bovine serum. These results indicate that dietary arginine supplementation appears safe but does not stimulate lymphocyte function in these advanced gastric cancer patients. The suppressed immune function may be the results of their intrinsic lymphocyte defect.