Effects of L-Carnitine on Cardiac Apoptosis in Ischemic- Reperfused Isolated Rat Heart

Carnitine is a vital biologic substance for transporting fatty acids into myocytes.it also facilitates fatty acids â-oxidation for energy production. in this study, effectsof l-carnitine (l-car) on apoptosis in the ischemic isolated rat heart were investigated.male sprague-dawley rats were divided into four groups and anesthetized bysodium pentobarbital. the heart was removed and mounted on a langendorffapparatus then perfused by a modified krebs-henseleit (k/h) solution under aconstant pressure at 37 °c. in the control group, the hearts were perfused only bynormal k/h solution at stabilization, 30 min. regional ischemia and 120 min.reperfusion, while in each of the test groups, the hearts were perfused duringischemia-reperfusion with 0.5, 2.5 and 5 mm of l-car-enriched k/h solution,respectively. at the end of reperfusion, immunohistochemical detection of apoptoticcells was performed by using an in situ apoptosis detection kit. the number oftunel-positive cardiomyocytes was counted in five random high-power fields ineach sample. in the control group, the number of apoptotic cells were 48±3 whileaddition of l-car (0.5, 2.5 and 5 mm) to the solution reduced the number ofapoptotic cells to 6±1, 4±1 and 3±1, respectively (p<0.001 for all concentrations).there was no significant difference between and within test groups using anovaone-way. considering these results, we conclude that l-car has a protective effectagainst cardiac ischemia-reperfusion induced injuries as a reduction of apoptoticcardiomyocytes.