Betaine and L-Carnitine Synergistically Influence the Metabolome and Immune Response in Dogs

• Published in: Animals (Basel) Vol. 14; no. 3; p. 357
• Main Authors: Jewell, Dennis E, Tavener, Selena K, Creech, Renea, Panickar, Kiran S
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 01.01.2024
• Subjects: Bacterial infections; canine; Carbon; Cytokines; Dogs; Food; Homocysteine; Hypotheses; immune cell stimulation; Immune response; Immunotherapy; Inflammation; Levocarnitine; Metabolism; Metabolites; metabolomics; Pets; Random variables; Statistical analysis; Tumor necrosis factor-TNF; United States > US; canine; cytokines; immune cell stimulation; inflammation; metabolomics
• ISSN: 2076-2615; 2076-2615
• DOI: 10.3390/ani14030357

This study used thirty-two dogs, which were assigned to a preferred period of 14 days and then assigned to one of the four treatment foods: control (containing no added betaine, no added L-carnitine), control with 0.5% added betaine (Treatment 2), control with no added betaine and 300 ppm added L-carnitine (Treatment 3), or control with 0.5% added betaine and 300 ppm added L-carnitine (Treatment 4). All treatment foods were fed for ninety days. Untargeted blood metabolomic analysis and immune response were measured at the beginning and end of the 90-day feeding trial. Feeding betaine increased single-carbon metabolites while decreasing many carnitine-containing metabolites. Feeding L-carnitine increased many carnitine metabolites, while the combination synergistically influenced the metabolome. The combination of betaine and L-carnitine increased the cytokines released in a Tru-culture system in response to stimulation while numerically decreasing their release when unstimulated. Therefore, the combination of dietary betaine and L-carnitine could have the dual positive effects of reducing cytokine stimulation, controlling inflammation during health, and providing a robust response to bacterial infection.