Monday, September 20, 2010

Betaine improves lactation performance

The objective of the present study was to evaluate the effects of betaine supplementation on rumen fermentation, lactation performance and plasma characteristics in dairy cows.

Twenty multiparous Holstein dairy cows (5978 kg body weight (BW), 885 days in milk (DIM) and average daily milk production of 2604 Latin square experiment. The treatments were: control (without betaine), low-betaine (LB), medium-betaine (MB) and high-betaine (HB) with 0, 50, 100 and 150 g supplemental anhydrous betaine/cow/day, respectively. Betaine was hand-mixed into the top one-third of the daily ration at feeding. Experimental periods were 30 days with 15 days of adaptation and 15 days of sampling. Dry matter (DM) intake was not affected with increasing the betaine supplementation. There were linear increases in milk yield and fat-corrected milk yield (corrected to 40 g fat/kg) and a linear and quadratic increase in milk fat concentration with increasing the betaine supplementation, whereas the proportion and yield of milk protein and lactose, and feed efficiency, were not affected. Ruminal pH and ammonia N linearly decreased, whereas total volatile fatty acid (VFA) concentration linearly and quadratically increased with increasing the betaine supplementation. The ratio of acetate to propionate (A:P) linearly increased from 353 as betaine supplementation increased. Digestibility of DM linearly increased, whereas digestibilities of organic matter (OM), crude protein (CP), neutral detergent fibre (NDF) and acid detergent fibre (ADF) in the total tract were quadratically increased with increasing the betaine supplementation. Plasma concentrations of non-esterified fatty acids (NEFA) and β-hydroxybutyrate (BHBA) were lower for betaine supplementation than for control, and were linearly decreased by betaine supplementation.

The results indicate that supplementation of mid-lactation dairy cow diets with betaine increased milk yield through increased feed digestion. Betaine supplementation may benefit lactation performance when methionine supply is limiting.

Wang et al (2010). "Effects of betaine supplementation on rumen fermentation, lactation performance, feed digestibilities and plasma characteristics in dairy cows." J. Agric. Sci. 148(4): 487-495.

Betaine supplementation improved cycling sprint power

This study examined the effect of betaine on cycling sprint performance.

Sixteen untrained subjects (7 females and 9 males) completed three sprint tests, each consisting of four 12 sec efforts against 5.5% of body weight as resistance; efforts were separated by 2.5 min of cycling at zero resistance. Test one established baseline; test two and three were preceded by daily consumption of 591 ml of a carbohydrate-electrolyte beverage as a placebo or a carbohydrate-electrolyte beverage containing 0.42% betaine. A double blind random order crossover design and a three-week washout between trials were used. Average and maximum peak and mean power were analyzed with one-way repeated measures ANOVA and, where indicated, a Student Newman–Keuls; α was set at 0.05.

Compared to baseline, betaine ingestion increased average peak power (6.4%, p < 0.001), max peak power (5.7%, p < 0.001), average mean power (5.4%, p = 0.004), and max mean power (4.4%, p = 0.004) for all subjects combined. Compared to placebo, betaine ingestion significantly increased average peak power (3.4%, p = 0.026), max peak power max (3.8%, p = 0.007), average mean power (3.3%, p = 0.034), and max mean power (3.5%, p = 0.011) for all subjects combined. There were no differences between the placebo and baseline trials.

One week of betaine ingestion improved cycling sprint power in untrained males and females.

Czapla R, Swensen T, and Craig SAS. Effect of betaine on cycling sprint power. Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition. 2010;7(Suppl 1):P23

Betaine supplementation improves abdominal fat traits and decreases transcription of lipogenenis genes

Experiments were conducted to investigate the effect of betaine supplementation on mRNA expression levels of lipogenesis genes and CpG methylation of lipoprotein lipase gene (LPL) in broilers.

From 22 days of age, 78 broilers were feed basal diet without betaine and basal diet supplemented with 0.1% betaine, respectively, and at 56 and 66 days of age, the traits of 15 chickens (7 males and 8 females) of each group were recorded and abdominal fat pads were collected. The mRNA expression levels of several lipogenesis gene were analyzed by semi-quantitative RT-PCR and real-time quantitative RT-PCR (qPCR), respectively. The CpG methylation profile at the promoter region of LPL gene in 66-day-old broilers was determined by bisulfite sequencing. The average daily gain and percent abdominal fat traits were slightly improved in 56-day-old and 66-day-old broilers after dietary supplementation of betaine to diet. After adding 0.1% betaine to diet, the mRNA levels of fatty acid synthase (FAS) and adipocyte-type fatty acid-binding protein genes in abdominal adipose were significantly decreased in 56-day-old broilers, and those of LPL and FAS genes in abdominal adipose were significantly decreased in 66-day-old broilers comparing with the control group (P < 0.05 and P < 0.001). Moreover, in 66-day-old broilers fed 0.1% betaine diet, a different CpG methylation pattern was observed: the CpG dinucleotides of 1st, 6th, 7th, 8th and from 10th to 50th were less methylated; however, those of 2nd, 5th and 9th were more heavily methylated.

The results suggest that transcription of some lipogenesis genes was decreased by betaine supplementation and betaine may decrease LPL mRNA expression by altering CpG methylation pattern on LPL promoter region.


Xing et al (2010). "Effect of dietary betaine supplementation on lipogenesis gene expression and CpG methylation of lipoprotein lipase gene in broilers." Mol Biol Rep 38(3): 1975-81.