NUTRITION AND HEALTH SERIES

In humans, L-arginine is considered as a conditionally essential amino acid. As with many other ana-
lytes, it may be harmful in some conditions. For example, L-arginine has been shown to impart an

immunomodulatory effect and protects cells against cellular stress. On the other hand, L-arginine
depletion has been shown to reduce experimental depression and some cancers depend on L-arginine

derived from extracellular pools. The science of L-arginine is also interlinked with nitric oxide metab-
olism, itself a specialized area of study. On the whole though L-arginine supplementation has been

shown to be benefi cial to a variety of cells and tissues including immune cells, cardiovascular tissues,
liver, muscle, kidney, and bone. However, fi nding all the relevant and wide ranging information on

L-arginine in a single source has hitherto been problematic as the material is so diverse. This is, how-
ever, addressed in L-Arginine in Clinical Nutrition