Glycine and its effect on platelet clumping in rats and people
What it found
Glycine reduced the clumping of blood platelets in both rats and human blood samples.
It also doubled bleeding time in rats fed a glycine-rich diet for 5 days.
What they found
Studies in people
Platelet clumping in humans
Adding glycine to human blood samples in the lab reduced platelet clumping. At 3 and 10 mM, glycine lowered the clumping response triggered by ADP from 31 down to 25 and 22 Ω.
Animal and lab studies
Bleeding time in rats
Rats fed 5 % dietary glycine for 5 days took more than twice as long to stop bleeding compared to rats fed valine. Blood calcium levels and pH did not change.
Platelet clumping in rats
In rats fed 2.5 or 5 % glycine for 5 days, platelet clumping dropped by over 50 %. Adding glycine directly to rat blood in lab tests also reduced clumping, with stronger effects at higher doses from 1 to 10 mM.
Studies in people and animals
How glycine works
A drug called strychnine blocked the effect of glycine on rat platelets in lab tests. This suggests glycine acts through specific receptors. These receptors were found on both rat and human platelets using protein tests.
What the authors conclude
- They conclude that glycine reduces platelet clumping in a dose-dependent way by acting on glycine receptors.
- They suggest that adding glycine to the diet could help prevent diseases where excessive platelet clumping plays a role.
- The authors note that glycine is a natural amino acid already present in blood at 100 to 200 µM under normal conditions.
How it was done
Platelets clump together to stop bleeding, but too much clumping can block blood vessels. The authors wanted to see if glycine could reduce this clumping by acting on channels found on platelets.
Female rats were fed diets containing up to 5 % glycine for 5 days, while control rats received valine instead. The researchers measured how long it took the rats to stop bleeding and how well their platelets clumped. They also tested glycine directly on rat and human blood samples in lab tests.
What it can’t tell you
- The rat feeding study lasted only 5 days, so longer-term effects are unknown.
- Lab tests on human blood samples cannot show what happens when a person eats glycine.
- This was not a clinical trial in people taking glycine over time.
Who paid
- Funding
- Funded by NIDDK NIH HHS (from the PubMed record).
- Authors work at
- Ruprecht-Karls-University, Germany
The paper
- Title
- Glycine reduces platelet aggregation
- Type
- Study
- Evidence
- Studies in people · animals · lab
- Summarised from
- Full text
- Cite
- Schemmer P, Zhong Z, Galli U, et al (2013). Glycine reduces platelet aggregation. Amino acids. doi:10.1007/s00726-012-1422-8Free full textPubMed 23135224DOI
Summary written 30 Sep 2026. Check it against the paper before it changes what you eat. How we summarise papers · Report an error