Zinc carnosine works with bovine colostrum in truncating heavy exercise-induced increase in gut permeability in healthy volunteers
Randomised controlled trialHumansWith zinc (as polaprezinc / zinc-L-carnosine); bovine colostrum in two arms
This study tested carnosine together with zinc (as polaprezinc / zinc-L-carnosine); bovine colostrum in two arms. Its results cannot be assigned to carnosine alone. More combination studies.
- Design
- Randomised controlled trial
- Subjects
- 8 healthy volunteers (double-blind, placebo-controlled four-arm crossover)
- Dose used in the study
- Zinc carnosine, colostrum, both, or placebo (dose not stated in abstract)
- Duration
- 14 days per arm, with standardised exercise on days 2 and 14
- What was measured
- Gut permeability by 5-hour urinary lactulose:rhamnose ratio after exercise that raised core temperature by 2 degrees C. Laboratory work on Caco-2 and HT29 cells for epithelial resistance, apoptosis and tight junction proteins.
What the authors reported
Exercise tripled gut permeability (lactulose:rhamnose 0.32 at baseline to 1.0 at day 14 on placebo, p < 0.01). After 14 days, zinc carnosine or colostrum alone reduced this rise by about 70%. The combination had an added effect, cutting the rise by 30% at day 2 (p < 0.01). In cells, zinc carnosine raised heat shock protein 70, increased total occludin and changed tight junction protein phosphorylation.
Limits of this study
Very small trial (8 people). Crossover design. Surrogate marker (permeability), not symptoms. The cell experiments used intestinal cell lines. Registered ISRCTN51159138. Full text not read.
Source
PubMed 27357095 · doi:10.3945/ajcn.116.134403
Entry checked against PubMed abstract (E-utilities) on 2026-10-19. The dose shown is the dose the researchers used. It is not a recommendation. How to read this page.