biostudies-literatureUnknown24Yue ZThe yak (<i>Bos grunniens</i>) is a crucial species for herders on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. Cold-season forage scarcity often leads to starvation, impairing the rumen epithelial barrier function and growth performance. Glutamine (Gln) has been shown to mitigate injury to the gastrointestinal tract barrier function, but its efficacy and mechanism against feed restriction (FR)-induced barrier injury in yaks remains unclear. This study combined in vivo and in vitro experiments to investigate this. Twenty-four healthy yaks (31 months, 265.35 ± 25.81 kg) were randomly divided into three groups (<i>n</i> = 8 per group) and fed for 60 d : the control (Con, ad libitum access to the basal diet), FR (50% of the basal diet), and FR + Gln (50% of the basal diet in the first month, with 1% Gln added Animal nutrition (Zhongguo xu mu shou yi xue hui)136-149https://www.ebi.ac.uk/biostudies/studies/S-EPMC12907834biostudies-literatureGlutamine alleviates feed restriction-induced barrier function injury in yak rumen epithelium.PMC12907834Zou HJiang YShah AMXiao JPeng QWang JWang ZHu RWu FKe STang YYue ZfalseGlutamine alleviates feed restriction-induced barrier function injury in yak rumen epithelium.The yak (<i>Bos grunniens</i>) is a crucial species for herders on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. Cold-season forage scarcity often leads to starvation, impairing the rumen epithelial barrier function and growth performance. Glutamine (Gln) has been shown to mitigate injury to the gastrointestinal tract barrier function, but its efficacy and mechanism against feed restriction (FR)-induced barrier injury in yaks remains unclear. This study combined in vivo and in vitro experiments to investigate this. Twenty-four healthy yaks (31 months, 265.35 ± 25.81 kg) were randomly divided into three groups (<i>n</i> = 8 per group) and fed for 60 d : the control (Con, ad libitum access to the basal diet), FR (50% of the basal diet), and FR + Gln (50% of the basal diet in the first month, with 1% Gln added 2026-01-01T00:00:00Z2026 Mar2026-07-16T05:09:52.553Z2026-07-10T03:09:27.285ZS-EPMC129078344170424810.1016/j.aninu.2025.09.006