ArticleBMJ open2025
Association between glucosamine use and albuminuria in the UK: a cohort and Mendelian randomisation study.
Article in BMJ open, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
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6 authors.
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Abstract
backgroundGlucosamine is a commonly used 'over the counter' dietary supplement. Previous research has identified an association between glucosamine use and several positive health outcomes. However, a plausible biological mechanism for these associations has not yet been identified, meaning the causality of these relationships remains unclear. A protective effect of glucosamine on the vascular endothelium has been suggested as one such possible mechanism. Albuminuria is an early marker of endothelial dysfunction within the kidney and is associated with progression of kidney disease and adverse cardiovascular outcomes. In order to provide insights into the potential biological mechanisms underlying a protective association of glucosamine use with health outcomes, we evaluated evidence for an association between glucosamine use and albuminuria in UK Biobank (N=436 200).
methodsUnivariable and multivariable ordinal logistic regression were performed to evaluate evidence for an association between self-reported glucosamine use and albuminuria (measured as urine albumin creatinine ratio (uACR) categories). As a secondary analysis, we performed Mendelian randomisation (MR) to demonstrate the difficulties in inferring causality in this relationship using currently available data, using summary genetic data from UK Biobank and CDKGen (N=67 452).
resultsWe found that people who used glucosamine were more likely to be in a lower uACR group (OR 0.81, 95% CI 0.80 to 0.83, p<2.2×10
conclusionsWe found that detectable albuminuria was common in UK Biobank participants and we are the first to show that use of glucosamine supplements was associated with lower levels. Though this fits with a plausible biological role of the vascular endothelium in a potential protective effect of glucosamine use on many health outcomes, whether this relationship is causal or confounded remains unclear. We further discuss the inherent difficulties in using genetic instruments to proxy supplement use in MR analyses and highlight the need for a genome-wide association study of measured circulating glucosamine levels.
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