ArticleAmerican journal of physiology. Gastrointestinal and liver physiology2010
Betaine improves nonalcoholic fatty liver and associated hepatic insulin resistance: a potential mechanism for hepatoprotection by betaine.
Article in American journal of physiology. Gastrointestinal and liver physiology, 2010. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 82 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
82 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 183 citations in OpenAlex.
- Association of maternal gut microbial metabolites with gestational diabetes mellitus: evidence from an original case-control study, meta-analysis, and Mendelian randomization.European journal of clinical nutrition · 2025Pooled it
- Pilot trials of oral betaine in participants with metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease and elevated alanine aminotransferase.Hepatology (Baltimore, Md.) · 2026Trial
- One-year longitudinal association between changes in dietary choline or betaine intake and cardiometabolic variables in the PREvención con DIeta MEDiterránea-Plus (PREDIMED-Plus) trial.The American journal of clinical nutrition · 2022Trial
- Metabolic Effects of Betaine: A Randomized Clinical Trial of Betaine Supplementation in Prediabetes.The Journal of clinical endocrinology and metabolism · 2018Trial
- Betaine in Metabolic Dysfunction-Associated Steatotic Liver Disease: Mechanisms of Action and Therapeutic Potential.Antioxidants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Hepatocyte-Specific Deletion of Betaine-Homocysteine Methyltransferase Disrupts Methionine Metabolism and Promotes the Spontaneous Development of Hepatic Steatosis.Biomolecules · 2026Article
- Article
- Diet composition impacts the natural history of steatotic liver disease.Hepatology communications · 2025Article
- Betaine Dietary Supplementation: Healthy Aspects in Human and Animal Nutrition.Antioxidants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- Article
- Betaine supplementation affects carbohydrate metabolism in the skeletal muscle of finishing pigs.PloS one · 2025Article
- Betaine attenuates fatty changes via antioxidant responses against oxytetracycline-induced fatty liver in rats.Gastroenterology and hepatology from bed to bench · 2025Article
- Shuangdong Capsule Activates Insulin Signal Pathway to Improve Urinary Tract Infection in Diabetic Rats.Combinatorial chemistry & high throughput screening · 2025Article
- Exercise-mimicking effects of betaine in chronic disease prevention and management.Frontiers in nutrition · 2025Review
- Betaine regulates the gut-liver axis: a therapeutic approach for chronic liver diseases.Frontiers in nutrition · 2025Review
- Probiotics as Potential Tool to Mitigate Nucleotide Metabolism Alterations Induced by DiNP Dietary Exposure inInternational journal of molecular sciences · 2024Article
- Choline and betaine intakes during pregnancy in relation to risk of gestational diabetes mellitus among Chinese women.The British journal of nutrition · 2024Article
- Association of ultra-processed food intake with severe non-alcoholic fatty liver disease: a prospective study of 143073 UK Biobank participants.The journal of nutrition, health & aging · 2024Article
- Oral Supplementation with Betaine Powder Ameliorated High Blood Pressure in Spontaneously Hypertensive Rats.Metabolites · 2024Article
- Role of autophagy in betaine-promoted hepatoprotection against non-alcoholic fatty liver disease in mice.Current research in food science · 2024Article
22 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
8 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Nonalcoholic fatty liver (NAFL) is a common liver disease, associated with insulin resistance. Betaine has been tested as a treatment for NAFL in animal models and in small clinical trials, with mixed results. The present study aims to determine whether betaine treatment would prevent or treat NAFL in mice and to understand how betaine reverses hepatic insulin resistance. Male mice were fed a moderate high-fat diet (mHF) containing 20% of calories from fat for 7 (mHF) or 8 (mHF8) mo without betaine, with betaine (mHFB), or with betaine for the last 6 wk (mHF8B). Control mice were fed standard chow containing 9% of calories from fat for 7 mo (SF) or 8 mo (SF8). HepG2 cells were made insulin resistant and then studied with or without betaine. mHF mice had higher body weight, fasting glucose, insulin, and triglycerides and greater hepatic fat than SF mice. Betaine reduced fasting glucose, insulin, triglycerides, and hepatic fat. In the mHF8B group, betaine treatment significantly improved insulin resistance and hepatic steatosis. Hepatic betaine content significantly decreased in mHF and increased significantly in mHFB. Betaine treatment reversed the inhibition of hepatic insulin signaling in mHF and in insulin-resistant HepG2 cells, including normalization of insulin receptor substrate 1 (IRS1) phosphorylation and of downstream signaling pathways for gluconeogenesis and glycogen synthesis. Betaine treatment prevents and treats fatty liver in a moderate high-dietary-fat model of NAFL in mice. Betaine also reverses hepatic insulin resistance in part by increasing the activation of IRS1, with resultant improvement in downstream signaling pathways.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.