Nicotinamide Riboside Augments the Aged Human Skeletal Muscle NAD(+) Metabolome and Induces Transcriptomic and Anti-inflammatory Signatures

Elhassan YS, Kluckova K, Fletcher RS, Schmidt MS, Garten A, Doig CL · Cell Reports

The rare human trial that biopsied the target tissue: NR raised the skeletal-muscle NAD+ metabolome and lowered circulating inflammatory cytokines, but muscle mitochondrial bioenergetics were unchanged and the transcriptome moved down, not up, on energy-metabolism pathways.

Population

Aged men

Intervention

Nicotinamide riboside 1,000 mg/day for 21 days, crossover

Comparator

Placebo

Limitations

Twelve men, 21 days. Establishes tissue delivery to muscle — no equivalent study has ever sampled human cartilage or synovium after an NAD+ precursor.