OBJECTIVES To To compare testosterone undecanoate versus propionyl-L-carnitine plus acetyl-L-carnitine and placebo in the treatment of male aging symptoms. METHODS A total of 120 patients were randomized into three groups. The mean patient age was 66 years (range 60 to 74). Group 1 was given testosterone undecanoate 160 mg/day, the second group was given propionyl-L-carnitine 2 g/day plus ace...

BACKGROUND Although great progress has been made in the pathogenesis and treatment of acute kidney injury (AKI), it still has high incidence and poor prognosis. The present study was performed in order to further understand the metabolomic changes of ischemia/reperfusion (I/R)-induced AKI and the protective effect of L-carnitine on AKI. METHODS Kidney tissues and serum samples were collected ...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Cerebral ischemic insults disrupt normal respiratory activity in mitochondria. Carnitine plays an essential role in mitochondrial metabolism and in modulating excess acyl-coenzyme A (acyl-CoA) levels. The effects of cerebral ischemia on carnitine metabolism are not well understood, although the newborn may be particularly vulnerable to carnitine deficiency. We used a newb...

The kinetic behavior of the carnitine:acylcarnitine translocase was studied in isolated rat heart mitochondria. The kinetic parameters, Km(apparent) and Vmax, for carnitine were determined by measuring the rates of influx of [14C]carnitine using two different methods to quench the exchange reaction. The range of the Km(app) was 0.38-1.50 mM and the Vmax was 0.20-0.34 nmol/mg . min by both metho...

Mitochondrial abnormalities are suggested to be associated with the development of nonalcoholic fatty liver. Liver mitochondrial content and function have been shown to improve in oral feeding of acetyl-L-carnitine (ALC) to rodents. Carnitine is involved in the transport of acyl-coenzyme A across the mitochondrial membrane to be used in mitochondrial β-oxidation. We hypothesized that oral admin...

In eukaryotes, L-carnitine is involved in energy metabolism by facilitating beta-oxidation of fatty acids. Carnitine acetyltransferases (CrAT) catalyze the reversible conversion of acetyl-CoA and carnitine to acetylcarnitine and free CoA. To redesign the specificity of rat CrAT toward its substrates, we mutated Met564. The M564G mutated CrAT showed higher activity toward longer chain acyl-CoAs:...

Two methods for the cytochemical detection of free CoA and their utilization in the finestructural localization of carnitine acetyltransferase in rat heart are described. The first utilizes the reducing property of the SH group of CoA to reduce potassium ferricyanide to potassium ferrocyanide, which in the presence of uranyl ions forms an electron-dense precipitate of uranyl ferrocyanide. The s...