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Phenotyping in clinical nutrition

Skeletal muscle mass can be estimated by creatine (methyl‐d3) dilution and is correlated with fat-free mass in active young males

European Journal of Clinical Nutrition volume 77, pages 393–399 (2023)Cite this article

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Abstract

Background

Assessing whole-body skeletal muscle mass (SMM) and fat-free mass (FFM) is essential for the adequate nutritional management and training evaluation of athletes and trained individuals. This study aimed to determine the relationship between SMM assessed using the creatine (methyl‐d3) dilution (D3-creatine) method and SMM estimated by whole-body magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in healthy young men undergoing exercise training. Additionally, we examined the association between FFM measured using the four-component (4C) method (FFM4C) and the total body protein value estimated using 4C (TBpro4C).

Methods and results

We analyzed the data of 29 males (mean age, 19.9 ± 1.8 years) who exercised regularly. SMM measurements were obtained using the D3-creatine method (SMMD3-creatine) and MRI (SMMMRI). The SMMD3-creatine adjusted to 4.3 g/SMM kg was significantly higher than SMMMRI (p < 0.01). The fit of the creatine pool size compared with SMMMRI was 5.0 g/SMMMRI kg. SMMMRI was significantly correlated with both SMMD3-creatine adjusted to 4.3 g/kg and 5.1 g/kg. TBpro4C was significantly lower than SMMMRI (p < 0.01). Contrastingly, FFM4C was significantly higher than SMMMRI (p < 0.01).

Conclusions

SMMD3-creatine adjusted to 4.3 g/SMM kg—a previously reported value—may differ for athletes and active young males. We believe that a value of 5.0–5.1 g/SMM kg better estimates the total muscle mass in this population. Traditional FFM estimation highly correlates with SMMMRI in well-trained young males, and the relationships appear strong enough for total body protein or SMM to be estimated through the FFM value.

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Fig. 1: Whole-body skeletal muscle mass, total body protein and fat-free mass.
Fig. 2: Relative whole-body components compared to body mass and FFM.
Fig. 3: Comparison of the D3-creatine method and MRI results after the creatine pool size was adjusted to (A) 4.3 g/SMM kg and (B) 5.1 g/SMM kg.

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Data availability

The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

We wish to thank the volunteers who participated in this study and their coaches. The authors also thank Mr. Tsuyoshi Sakamoto for his advice on the MRI analysis.

Funding

This investigation was mainly supported by the Research Fellowships from the JSPS KAKENHI (16J11877 and 20K19563 to HS, 19H04017 to HT, and 18H03164 to YY). This data analysis and publication were supported by a grant 2022(I)1 from the Advanced Research Initiative for Human High Performance (ARIHHP), University of Tsukuba.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Health and Sport Sciences, University of Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan

    Hiroyuki Sagayama, Emi Kondo, Yoko Tanabe & Hideyuki Takahashi

  2. National Institute of Health and Nutrition, National Institutes of Biomedical Innovation, Health and Nutrition, Tokyo, Japan

    Yosuke Yamada

  3. Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, Tokyo, Japan

    Emi Kondo, Yoko Tanabe & Akiko Uchizawa

  4. Graduate School of Comprehensive Human Science, University of Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan

    Akiko Uchizawa

  5. Department of Nutritional Sciences and Toxicology, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA

    Mahalakshmi Shankaran, Edna Nyangau, William J. Evans & Marc Hellerstein

  6. Department of Medicine, Division of Geriatrics, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC, USA

    William J. Evans

  7. Faculty of Sports and Health Science, Fukuoka University, Fukuoka, Japan

    Jun Yasukata & Yasuki Higaki

  8. Japan Institute of Sports Sciences, Tokyo, Japan

    Takahiro Ohnishi & Hideyuki Takahashi

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Contributions

HS, YY, and HT planned the study. HS, EK, TY, TO, and HT collected data. MS, EN, WE, MH, JY, and HY performed specimen and data analyses. HS, AU, and YY conducted statistical analyses. HS prepared illustrations. HS, EK, AU, and YY drafted the manuscript. All authors interpreted the results and revised and approved the final version of the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Hiroyuki Sagayama.

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Competing interests

WJE and MH are listed as co-inventors on patents for the D3-creatine dilution method. However, they do not control the IP nor do they derive any income from the use of this method. The other authors declare no competing interests.

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Sagayama, H., Yamada, Y., Kondo, E. et al. Skeletal muscle mass can be estimated by creatine (methyl‐d3) dilution and is correlated with fat-free mass in active young males. Eur J Clin Nutr 77, 393–399 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41430-022-01237-9

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