Investigation of potential toxicity of chronic creatine ingestion by HPLC-ESI-MS

Creatine is alleged to be a popular nutrition to enhance sports performance. It can be metabolized to methylamine, which is further converted to formaldehyde, hydrogen peroxide and ammonium by semicarbazied-sensitive amine oxidases ( SSAO ). Potential toxicity of chronic creatine administration was discussed by the increase of SSAO activity and toxic products. A novel HPLC-ESI-MS method for the determination of SSAO activity was developed. In this study,we demonstrated that after chronic administration of creatine to mice,the level of methylamine and formaldehyde in urine were increased, SSAO activity of serum was increased simultaneously. Although creatine is a major endogemous constituent, chronic creatine ingestion in a large dose as a nutrition supplement would be potentially toxicity.