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Review
. 2014 Apr 27:14:150.
doi: 10.1186/1471-2393-14-150.

Creatine supplementation during pregnancy: summary of experimental studies suggesting a treatment to improve fetal and neonatal morbidity and reduce mortality in high-risk human pregnancy

Hayley Dickinson, Stacey Ellery, Zoe Ireland, Domenic LaRosa, Rodney Snow, David W Walker  1
Affiliations
Review

Creatine supplementation during pregnancy: summary of experimental studies suggesting a treatment to improve fetal and neonatal morbidity and reduce mortality in high-risk human pregnancy

Hayley Dickinson et al. BMC Pregnancy Childbirth. .

Abstract

While the use of creatine in human pregnancy is yet to be fully evaluated, its long-term use in healthy adults appears to be safe, and its well documented neuroprotective properties have recently been extended by demonstrations that creatine improves cognitive function in normal and elderly people, and motor skills in sleep-deprived subjects. Creatine has many actions likely to benefit the fetus and newborn, because pregnancy is a state of heightened metabolic activity, and the placenta is a key source of free radicals of oxygen and nitrogen. The multiple benefits of supplementary creatine arise from the fact that the creatine-phosphocreatine [PCr] system has physiologically important roles that include maintenance of intracellular ATP and acid-base balance, post-ischaemic recovery of protein synthesis, cerebral vasodilation, antioxidant actions, and stabilisation of lipid membranes. In the brain, creatine not only reduces lipid peroxidation and improves cerebral perfusion, its interaction with the benzodiazepine site of the GABAA receptor is likely to counteract the effects of glutamate excitotoxicity - actions that may protect the preterm and term fetal brain from the effects of birth hypoxia. In this review we discuss the development of creatine synthesis during fetal life, the transfer of creatine from mother to fetus, and propose that creatine supplementation during pregnancy may have benefits for the fetus and neonate whenever oxidative stress or feto-placental hypoxia arise, as in cases of fetal growth restriction, premature birth, or when parturition is delayed or complicated by oxygen deprivation of the newborn.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Creatine is an amino acid derivative involved with cellular energy production. In the form of energetically charged phosphocreatine (PCr), its primary function is to provide the phosphate group for regeneration of ATP from ADP in tissues of high and fluctuating energy demands. Human adults obtain approximately half of their daily requirement for creatine from a diet containing fresh fish, meat, and other animal products. The remainder is synthesized endogenously from arginine, glycine and methionine (methyl donor for GAMT reaction). This is a two-step process involving arginine:glycine aminotransferase (AGAT), principally in the kidney, producing guanidinoacetate (GAA), followed by hepatic guanidinoacetate methyltransferase (GAMT) activity producing creatine. Once synthesized, creatine is released from the liver into the circulation and taken up by most tissues, particularly muscle, by means of the creatine transporter. Inside the tissues a proportion of the creatine is phosphorylated to PCr, via the action of creatine kinase (CK). One important aspect of creatine biosynthesis is that the daily utilization of methyl groups on the GAMT reaction roughly equals the total daily intake of ‘labile’ methyl groups (methionine + choline) in an average diet. Thus, if methionine and choline levels are reduced, then endogenous creatine biosynthesis, responsible for half of our daily requirement for creatine, may be critically reduced.
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