Table 1.
Overview of betaine dosing in some clinical trials and experiments in animal models and cell lines
| Betaine dosage in various experiments/trials | Reference |
|---|---|
| Exposure of betaine from diet is approximately 0.830 g/day. Exposure of 4 g/day for 6 months showed no adverse effects on platelet counts in human. Exposure of 0.4 g/day betaine in addition to the endogenous exposure is considered safe for human [50] | |
| Clinical trials | |
| Oral, 1,3,6 g single doses mixed with orange juice after overnight fast | [51] |
| Oral, 3 g/day for 1 month | [9] |
| Oral, 10 g, twice a day, probably for 12 months | [13] |
| Oral, 20 g/day for 12 months | [52] |
| 3–9 g/day for different conditions for a mean of 7.4 ± 4.3 years | [16] |
| Oral, betaine glucoronate in combination with diethanolamine glucuronate and nicotinamide ascorbate for 8 weeks | [53] |
| Oral, 20 g/day in 2 divided doses for 12 months | [54] |
| Oral, 10 g (anhydrous betaine) twice a day for 12 months | [55] |
| Animal experiments | |
| Piglets: 20 g/kg feed (2% betaine in diet) for 6 weeks | [50] |
| Rats: ethanol with 1% betaine for 6 months | [7] |
| Rats: 10 and 50 mg/kg i.p for three consecutive days | [17] |
| Rats: ethanol containing water with betaine (1% w/v) for 6 months | [18] |
| Rats: betaine 0.4 g/kg/day intragastrically post 12 weeks of high-fat diet from weeks 13–16 | [19] |
| Rats: ethanol with betaine (1% w/v; 10 mg/mL) for 4–5 weeks | [23] |
| Rats: ethanol with 1% betaine for 4 weeks | [28] |
| Rats: ethanol with 1% betaine for 4 weeks | [43] |
| Rats: 3 g/kg betaine hydrochloride in diet for up to 14 days | [44] |
| Rats: 1% betaine either from 2 weeks before or after partial hepatectomy | [14] |
| Rats: 1% betaine w/v in water for 3 weeks | [27] |
| Guinea pigs: Betaine containing chow (2% w/w) for 30 days | [21] |
| Mice: 0.5% betaine w/v in liquid diet for 5 weeks | [31] |
| Mice: 1% w/v betaine in drinking water for 16 weeks | [34] |
| Mice: 2% betaine/100 g diet for 7 weeks | [36] |
| Cell lines | |
| Betaine at 2 mM (with or without fatty acids) to HepG2 cells and AML12 cells for 24 h | [24] |
| Betaine at 2 mM (with or without alcohol) to HepG2 cells overexpressing CYP2E1 for 24 h | [56] |
| Betaine at 84 mM to 336 mM to Hepa 1–6 and clones of HepG2 cells for up to 4 days | [57] |
| Betaine up to 80 mM to breast cancer cell line MCF-7, in combination or parallel with ethanol treatment for 6 days | [58] |
| Rat small intestinal cell line IEC-18 3.4 to 6.8 mM for 24 h (in combination with lipopolysaccharide) | [59] |