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10-Week Guanidinoacetic Acid Supplementation Affects Inflammatory Markers in Healthy Men and Women: 334 Board...

Article in Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise · May 2017

DOI: 10.1249/01.mss.0000517044.97199.7e

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 10-Week Guanidinoacetic Acid Supplementation Affects !
Inflammatory Markers in Healthy Men and Women
Sergej M. OSTOJIC, Patrid DRID, Tatjana TRIVIC, Valdemar STAJER"
Applied Bioenergetics Lab, Faculty of Sport and PE, University of Novi Sad, Serbia

Abstract Results
Cellular bioenergetics largely depends on guanidinoacetic acid (GAA, also known as glycocyamine or Both hsCRP and WBC increased non-significantly at follow-up (P >
betacyamine), a natural metabolic precursor of creatine, and an investigational dietary supplement. Previous
0.05) (Figure 1) while GAA intervention significantly (*) augmented
animal studies have shown that supplemental GAA could induce inflammatory responses yet no human
studies so far evaluated possible pro-inflammatory effects of this compound. PURPOSE: To examine the serum ferritin at post-administration (7.5%; P = 0.01). In addition,
effects of 10-week supplementation with 3 grams per day of GAA on serum and urinary inflammatory
markers in apparently healthy men and women. METHODS: Twenty healthy volunteers (10 men and 10
several cardiometabolic markers, including serum homocysteine,
women; age 22.0 ± 2.3 years, weight 75.5 ± 22.9 kg, height 173.3 ± 10.5 cm) participated in this open- vitamin B12, also alkaline phosphatase (ALP) were significantly altered
label, repeated-measure interventional study. All participants were assigned to receive GAA for 10 weeks,
and were evaluated at baseline, and following 10-weeks of ingestion. The primary endpoint was the change by the intervention (P < 0.01), while no significant effects of GAA were
in serum levels of high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hsCRP) assessed at baseline and at 10 weeks follow-
reported for insulin, HDL cholesterol or folic acid (P > 0.05) (Table 1).
up. Secondary outcomes included change from baseline to end of treatment in values for serum ferritin,
white blood cell (WBC) count and differential, and urinary inflammation markers. RESULTS: Serum hsCRP
levels increased non-significantly during GAA intervention (1.6 ± 1.0 mg/L at baseline vs. 1.8 ± 2.1 mg/L at

10-week follow-up; P = 0.72). Supplementation with GAA yielded a statistically significant increase (7.5%
corresponding to 4.1 g/L; P = 0.012) of the mean serum ferritin levels. In addition, WBC count tended to
increase at post administration (6.7 ± 0.9 • 109 vs. 7.3 ± 1.5 • 109; P = 0.09), while urinary markers were


12.3
* 8.9
not affected by GAA intervention (P > 0.05). CONCLUSION: It appears that dietary GAA might have a pro- 7.5
inflammatory effect during medium-term intake in healthy humans. GAA-driven elevation in serum ferritin
should be considered as a possible adverse effect of the intervention.

hs CRP Ferritin WBC


Baseline At follow-up P
Background
Guanidinoacetic acid (GAA) has been introduced in human nutrition Insulin (IU/mL) 8.8 ± 6.2 8.6 ± 4.1 0.66

and medicine more than 65 years ago. A scientific interest for GAA has

HDL-cholesterol (mmol/L) 1.7 ± 0.5 1.7 ± 0.4 0.65
recently moved forward, with few studies investigated its effectiveness

Homocysteine (μmol/L) 6.8 ± 1.6 11.8 ± 3.7 0.00
and safety in humans. Supplemental GAA appears to enhance serum

and tissue levels of creatine,1 with GAA uplifts muscular performance Vitamin B12 (pg/mL)
332.9 ± 137.8 376.4 ± 129.6 0.01

and work capacity in young volunteers,2 and women with chronic

Folic acid (nmol/L) 19.3 ± 6.6 20.5 ± 6.9 0.25
fatigue syndrome.3 On the other hand, dietary GAA increases
ALP (IU/L) 69.6 ± 10.9 79.1 ± 17.0 0.01
methylation demand and provokes mild hypehomocysteinemia, a risk
factor for arterial vascular disease4 and may also act as a pro- AST (IU/L) 23.4 ± 5.3 26.6 ± 10.5 0.13

inflammatory agent.5 CK (IU/L) 192.7 ± 131.8 215.0 ± 166.4 0.40

Methods Conclusion
•  Open-label, repeated-measure interventional study The results of the present study indicated that standard biomarkers of
•  Twenty young man and women (age 22 ± 2 years) inflammation and cardiometabolic health were not majorily affected by
•  GAA intervention (Axenic Lab, AUS) = 3 g per day for 10 weeks 10-week GAA supplementation in young healthy men and women.
•  Evaluation = at baseline and at follow-up However, GAA induced an elevation in serum ferritin, a non-specific
•  Inflammatory markers = hsCRP, ferritin, WBC indicator of inflammation; this might be considered as a possible
•  Secondary markers = cardiometabolic markers, also GAA, Cr, Crn adverse effect of the intervention. Long-term studies are needed to
•  Safety oticomes = clinical enzymes etc. assess possible pro-inflammatory effects of exogenous GAA.

References Biography
Funding

1 Ostojic SM et al. Nutrition 2017;33:149-156. SM Ostojic, MD, PhD, is
Ministry of Education, Science and TD
2 Ostojic SM et al. J Investig Med 2015;63:942-6 a head of Applied Bioenergetics
Grant number: 175037
3 Ostojic SM et al. Nutrients 2016;8:72 Lab and Professor of Biomedical

4 Kim JM et al. Atherosclerosis 2016;254:200-4 Sciences at UNS; trained in medical physiology and
Provincial Secretariat for Science and TD
nutrition, his recent research is focused on different
5 Osna NA et al. World J Gastroenterol 2016;22:8497-508 Grant number: 114-451-710
mitochondria-targeted interventions in health and disease.

Scopus Author ID: 8552029600
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