Table 1. Mitochondrial respiration of β-alanine treated and untreated permeabilized cardiomyocytes.

Condition	Substrate	State 3 rate	State 4 rate	RCR	P/O ratio
Control	Glu-Mal	1.0 (43.61)	1.0 (11.03)	1.0 (3.7)	2.65 ± 0.2
β-alanine	Glu-Mal	0.78 ± 0.08*	0.9 ± 0.09	0.8 ± 0.1*	2.24 ± 0.17*
Control	Succinate	1.0 (65.4)	1.0 (15.8)	1.0 (3.3)	1.47 ± 0.12
β-alanine	Succinate	0.98 ± 0.09	1.2 ± 0.1	0.95 ± 0.07	1.31 ± 0.08

All of the control groups were normalized to 1.0, with the actual values shown in parentheses. The control and β-alanine-treated cardiomyocytes were incubated in medium containing either 4 mM glutamate + 2 mM malate or 5 mM succinate. After a steady-state rate of state 2 respiration was observed, 1 μmol of ADP was added and the rate of state 3 respiration was determined. When ADP levels were depleted, state 4 respiration was determined

RCR respiratory control ratio. Values shown represent means ± S.E.M. of 3–4 different experiments. Asterisks denote a significant difference between the control and β-alanine-treated groups (p < 0.05). Because the experiments were performed with different preparations, all data were normalized relative to the control cells