When muscle cells in a lab are put in a salty environment, they start making more of a special protein that helps them suck up creatine — and they get better at pulling it in, not because they’re pickier about it, but because they can handle more of it at once.

When cells are put under high salt stress, they start making more of a protein that helps bring in creatine — and this happens not just in muscle cells but also in blood vessel cells from pigs.

Even if creatine helps muscle cells survive under salty stress, it doesn’t do so by keeping their energy levels up—because the energy (ATP) still drops even when creatine is added.

Adding creatine to muscle cells in a lab makes them live longer when they’re in a super-salty environment, just like other known protective substances such as betaine and taurine.

Your muscles use a special door called SLC6A8 to let creatine in, and this door only works when there’s more sodium outside the cell than inside — like a pump that needs salt to open.

When scientists lowered the sodium levels around rat muscle cells, the cells absorbed much less creatine—showing that sodium is needed for creatine to get inside these muscle cells.