24-Week β-alanine ingestion does not affect muscle taurine or clinical blood parameters in healthy males

Abstract

Purpose To investigate the effects of chronic beta-alanine (BA) supplementation on muscle taurine content, blood clinical markers and sensory side-effects. Methods Twenty-five healthy male participants (age 27 ± 4 years, height 1.75 ± 0.09 m, body mass 78.9 ± 11.7 kg) were supplemented with 6.4 g day -1 of sustained-release BA (N = 16; CarnoSyn™, NAI, USA) or placebo (PL; N = 9; maltodextrin) for 24 weeks. Resting muscle biopsies of the m. vastus lateralis were taken at 0, 12 and 24 weeks and analysed for taurine content (BA, N = 12; PL, N = 6) using high-performance liquid chromatography. Resting venous blood samples were taken every 4 weeks and analysed for markers of renal, hepatic and muscle function (BA, N = 15; PL, N = 8; aspartate transaminase; alanine aminotransferase; alkaline phosphatase; lactate dehydrogenase; albumin; globulin; creatinine; estimated glomerular filtration rate and creatine kinase). Results There was a significant main effect of group (p = 0.04) on muscle taurine, with overall lower values in PL, although there was no main effect of time or interaction effect (both p > 0.05) and no differences between specific timepoints (week 0, BA: 33.67 ± 8.18 mmol kg -1 dm, PL: 27.75 ± 4.86 mmol kg -1 dm; week 12, BA: 35.93 ± 8.79 mmol kg -1 dm, PL: 27.67 ± 4.75 mmol kg -1 dm; week 24, BA: 35.42 ± 6.16 mmol kg -1 dm, PL: 31.99 ± 5.60 mmol kg -1 dm). There was no effect of treatment, time or any interaction effects on any blood marker (all p > 0.05) and no self-r…