Background Recently, supplementation of L-carnitine to obese rats was found to improve the carnitine status and to counteract an obesity-induced muscle fiber transition from type I to type II. However, it has not been resolved if the change of muscle fiber distribution induced in obese rats and the restoration of the "normal" muscle fiber distribution, which is found in lean rats, in obese rats...

BACKGROUND The conditionally essential nutrient, L-carnitine, plays a critical role in a number of physiological processes vital to normal neonatal growth and development. We conducted a systematic evaluation of the developmental changes in key L-carnitine homeostasis mechanisms in the postnatal rat to better understand the interrelationship between these pathways and their correlation to ontog...

Objective: The use of non-enzymatic antioxidants in the form of dietary supplements has a positive effect on reducing oxidative stress, and preventing apoptosis as they interrupt free radicals. The aim of this study was to investigate the aerobic exercise and L-carnitine consumption impacts on diabetes induced apoptosis, oxidative stress factors, and mitochondrial enzymes in rats. Materials an...

Carnitine was discovered in the first decade of this century, its role in transporting long-chain fatty acids across the mitochondrial membrane to facilitate 3-oxidation was identified in the seventh decade, and the spectrum of metabolic functions of carnitine is beginning to be understood as this century comes to a close (1). Our changing perspective of the role of carnitine in metabolism natu...

FRITZ, IRVING B., AND KENNETH T. N. YUE. Ejects of carnitine on acetyl-CoA oxidation by heart muscle mitochondria. Am. J. Physiol. 206(3) ~~31-535. 1964.~Acetyl-I-C14-CoA was oxidized by heart muscle mitochondria incubated in the absence of ATP and carnitine at a rate approximately $ioo that at which acetic acid-r -Cl4 was converted to CO2 in the presence of ATP. Carnitine addition increased th...

BACKGROUND Carnitine has attracted scientific interest due to several health-related effects, like protection against neurodegeneration, mitochondrial decay, and oxidative stress as well as improvement of glucose tolerance and insulin sensitivity. The mechanisms underlying most of the health-related effects of carnitine are largely unknown. METHODS To gain insight into mechanisms through whic...

Butyrate is a potent anticarcinogenic compound against colon cancer cells in vitro. However, its rapid metabolism is hypothesized to limit its anticancer benefits in colonic epithelial cells. Carnitine, a potent antioxidant, is essential to fatty acid oxidation. The aims of this study were to identify a colon cancer cell line capable of transporting carnitine. We evaluated the effect of carniti...

BACKGROUND Functional carnitine deficiency [as indicated by an abnormal acyl-carnitine/free-carnitine (AC:FC) ratio] is commonly seen in patients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD), resulting in significant clinical detriments including anaemia, cardiomyopathy and muscle weakness. Nocturnal haemodialysis (NHD) (5-6 sessions per week, 8 h per treatment) has been reported to reverse several surr...

UNLABELLED In many eukaryotes, the carnitine shuttle plays a key role in intracellular transport of acyl moieties. Fatty acid-grown Saccharomyces cerevisiae cells employ this shuttle to translocate acetyl units into their mitochondria. Mechanistically, the carnitine shuttle should be reversible, but previous studies indicate that carnitine shuttle-mediated export of mitochondrial acetyl units t...