چكيده لاتين :
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, effects
of 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 by
sodium pentobarbital. The heart was removed and mounted on a Langendorff
apparatus then perfused by a modified Krebs-Henseleit (K/H) solution under a
constant pressure at 37 °C. In the control group, the hearts were perfused only by
normal K/H solution at stabilization, 30 min. regional ischemia and 120 min.
reperfusion, while in each of the test groups, the hearts were perfused during
ischemia-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 apoptotic
cells was performed by using an in situ apoptosis detection kit. The number of
TUNEL-positive cardiomyocytes was counted in five random high-power fields in
each sample. In the control group, the number of apoptotic cells were 48±3 while
addition of L-Car (0.5, 2.5 and 5 mM) to the solution reduced the number of
apoptotic 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 ANOVA
one-way. Considering these results, we conclude that L-Car has a protective effect
against cardiac ischemia-reperfusion induced injuries as a reduction of apoptotic
cardiomyocytes.
