Dietary carnitine and carnosine increase body lean in healthy cats in a preliminary study
Controlled trialCatsWith L-carnitine in some arms (carnosine-alone arm also included)
This study tested carnosine together with L-carnitine in some arms (carnosine-alone arm also included). Its results cannot be assigned to carnosine alone. More combination studies.
- Design
- Controlled trial
- Subjects
- 45 healthy adult cats aged 6.2 to 13.9 years, in four diet groups (group sizes not stated)
- Dose used in the study
- control food; control plus 300 mg/kg L-carnitine; control plus 1000 mg/kg carnosine; control plus both
- Duration
- 169 days
- What was measured
- Lean and fat body mass, circulating glucose and triglycerides, serum metabolomics and cytokine concentrations.
What the authors reported
The authors report that carnitine alone and carnosine alone increased lean body mass compared with the control food or the combination food (final lean mass: control 3591 g, carnitine 3805 g, carnosine 3819 g, combination 3542 g). Carnitine alone lowered circulating cytokines. The combination raised glucose, pyruvate, succinate, triglycerides and 8 of 10 measured cytokines. The authors describe the study as preliminary.
Limits of this study
Described by the authors as preliminary; group sizes not stated; industry-affiliated authors; the combination arm showed changes the authors did not expect from the single ingredients.
Source
Entry checked against full text (journal site, MDPI) on 2026-10-11. The dose shown is the dose the researchers used. It is not a recommendation. How to read this page.