2009 Volume 26 Pages 59-64
Dietary therapy for obesity is considered as the first-choice treatment and is at least as important as medical treatment. Various supplements, such as l-carnitine (LC), are expected to affect loss weight and are already available as supplements worldwide. However, in many cases, young people who do require losing weight also tend to intake LC supplements. In the present study, the effect of dietary LC on lipid metabolism was evaluated in growing rats. Four-week-old male Wistar rats were fed an AIN-93G modified diet containing LC (0.25 % or 1.0 %). As parameters of lipid metabolism, the relative white adipose tissue (WAT) weights, serum and liver lipid contents, lipid metabolizing enzyme activities and fatty acid related enzymes expression levels in the liver were evaluated.
Dietary LC did not affect the relative WAT weights, serum and liver lipid contents, lipid metabolizing enzyme activities or fatty acid related enzymes expression levels in the liver. However, it was confirmed that serum and liver LC contents increased following the intake of LC diets compared with a non-LC-containing diet. Therefore, the growing rats were supplemented unnecessarily with LC, which is required for the β-oxidation of fatty acid by an endogenous biosynthetic pathway. Hence, it was suggested that LC intake by young people was not required.
