effect of L - carnitine on acute myocardial infarction in albino rats

ABSTRACT

Recently, there is increased interest in the use of over-the-counter supplements and naturally occurring nutriceuticals for enhancement of cardiac and skeletal muscle performance. These include amino acids such as creatine, L-carnitine, and L-arginine, as well as vitamins and cofactors such as alpha-tocopherol and coenzyme Q. The present work was designed to study the effect of L-carnitine on acute myocardial infarction in anaesthetized male albino rats. The animals were divided into three groups. In the 1[st] group, the animals were injected with normal saline and served as control. In the 2[nd] group, the animals were injected with isoprenaline [300 mg/kg, S.C. as single dose] to induce acute myocardial infarction [AMI]. In the 3[rd] group the animals were pretreated with L-carnitine in a single daily dose of [500 mg/kg], orally for three successive days with the 3[rd] dose given one hour before isoprenaline injection. The studied parameters were heart rate, T -wave voltage,serum level of total creatine kinase [CK], and its isoenzyme CK-MB, and the size of infarction. The results of the present study demonstrated that isoprenaline induced AMI as proved by significant increase in all studied parameters compared with control group with infarction size around 65%. L-carnitine produced significant decrease in all studied parameters in comparison to isoprenaline. It is concluded that pretreatment with L-carnitine is effective in reducing the myocardial damage. Thus, L-carnitine has myocardial protective effect in case of AMI as proved by the results of the present study