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...

BACKGROUND L-carnitine is synthesized mainly in the liver and kidneys from lysine and methionine from dietary sources. Many reports have shown that L-carnitine can protect certain cells against the toxicity of several anticancer and toxic agents, although the detailed mechanism is poorly understood. In this study, we investigated the protective effect of L-carnitine and its molecular mechanism ...