Study shows benefit of feeding MCFAs to cats with renal disease

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A recent study showed that felines fed medium chain triglycerides (MCTs) had improved energy status and reduced pro-inflammatory lipids. As a result, investigators found MCTs may support management of renal disease by correcting energy deficiencies and reducing inflammation.¹

The study was poster presented by Brielle N. Gordon, MS, associate scientist for Hill’s Pet Nutrition, at the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine (ACVIM) Forum 2025 in Louisville, Kentucky. The research team also included Kiran S. Panickar, PhD; Regina L. Hollar, Selena K. Taverner, Dennis E. Jewell, PhD, MS; and Matthew I. Jackson, PhD, with their work sponsored by Hill’s Pet Nutrition.

Renal insufficiency is associated with energy metabolism and immune activity disruption, according to investigators. Medium chain fatty acids are an energy source that generate ketone bodies. “Ketones and lipids are important mediators of energy metabolism and immune function,” they wrote.

“Our hypothesis was the dietary medium chain fatty acids, which is just what is hydrolyzed from the MCTs when they eat it, would provide available energy and reduce the lipid immune modulators for these cats with renal disease,” Gordon said in a dvm360 interview.

Investigators recruited cats with chronic kidney disease (CKD) for the study from those housed in the Hill’s Global Pet Nutrition Center in Topeka, Kansas. Investigators used clinical chemistry and plasma metabolomics to assess their participating cats’ renal function, β-hydroxybutyrate (BHB) ketone, and lipid metabolites.

“We had 16 cats with naturally occurring renal disease. We had 2 diets. It was a crossover study, so we fed them the Hill’s [kidney disease] diet, which was just their control diet, and then the other diet, the test diet, was the [kidney disease] diet but it had 8% of the MCTs added,” Gordon said.

“The cats were evenly distributed by their age, body weight and gender, and then also their IRIS [International Renal Interest Society] staging. Most of them were IRIS stages 1 and 2. So because of that, they're in their earlier stages of renal disease,” she added.

The study results showed that cats being fed the test diet for 8 weeks demonstrated increased fasting levels of serum BHB and plasma metabolite BHB. Additionally, lipids were disproportionately decreased by a large number with the test food. “The percentage of changed metabolites in each of the lipid classes, which there was 13 classes, was 72% on average. So that's very large,” Gordon explained.

“We're showing her that we did increase available energy for them. Knowing that the kidneys take a lot of energy to filter all the things and do all of their jobs, we think that could definitely be a benefit to these paths that have renal disease,” she added.

Gordon explained that increasing available energy can help the kidneys improve overall daily performance. “We also decrease levels of the liquid immune modulators. So we think that with those two things together, that feeding the medium chain triglycerides can at least slow down progression of renal disease for cats,” she said.

According to Gordon, MCTs as well as fish oil, for reducing inflammation, are already being incorporated into commercial pet diets for kidney disease and may also benefit senior diets because of increased vitality. “There was a study done prior to this in healthy fats that showed that those 2 ingredients together had synergistic effects that were beneficial. The 2 ingredients together were actually more beneficial than either ingredient on their own,” Gordon said.

Reference

Gordon BN, Panickar KS, Hollar RL, Tavener SK, Jewell DE, Jackson MI. Effects of dietary medium chain fatty acids on feline renal function. Presented at: American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine (ACVIM) Forum; Louisville, KY. June 18-21, 2025.