Effects of l-Carnitine Supplementation on Serum Inflammatory Factors and Matrix Metalloproteinase Enzymes in Females with Knee Osteoarthritis: A Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Pilot Study

What Was Tested

This randomized controlled trial paper looks at L-Carnitine.

Considering the importance of inflammation in the pathogenesis of osteoarthritis (OA) and induction of pain, this study was aimed to investigate the effect of L-carnitine supplementation on serum inflammatory mediators and OA-associated pain in females with knee OA.

Who Took Part

PubMed indexes the participants as middle-aged adults, women only.

Serum levels of Interleukine-1β (IL-1β), high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP), matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs)-1 and -13, and visual analog scale (VAS) for pain were assessed before and after supplementation.

How the Study Was Run

The researchers set it up as a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled and pilot study.

The participants were allocated by chance, so the L-Carnitine group and the comparison group should start out alike.

Neither the participants nor the staff measuring them knew who was on L-Carnitine, so expectations could not easily colour the readings.

Some participants received a placebo instead of L-Carnitine, giving a reference point.

It is described as a pilot, a small early test of whether a larger L-Carnitine study would be practical.

Data were analyzed by t test, Wilcoxon signed rank test, Mann-Whitney U test, and analysis of covariance.

What Was Measured

The subject headings attached to it are Anti-Inflammatory Agents, Biomarkers, C-Reactive Protein, Carnitine, Dietary Supplements, Inflammation and Interleukin-1beta.

Author keywords: L-carnitine, matrix metalloproteinase and osteoarthritis.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study of L-Carnitine.

Its findings take up roughly 6 sentences of the abstract and are left out here on purpose; the source paper is the place to read them.

The publication is from 2016 (Journal of the American College of Nutrition), a journal based in United States.

More context: the L-Carnitine compound page, all human trials.