Role of carnitine in hepatic ketogenesis

Abstract

The enhancement of long-chain fatty acid oxidation and ketogenesis in the perfused rat liver, whether induced acutely by treatment of fed animals with anti-insulin serum or glucagon, or over the longer term by starvation or the induction of alloxan diabetes, was found to ba accompanied by a proportional elevation in the tissue carnitine content. Moreover, when added to the medium perfusing livers from fed rats, carnitine stimulated ketogenesis from oleic acid. The findings suggest that the increased fatty acid flux through the carnitine acyltransferase (carnitine palmitoyl-transferase; palmitoyl-CoA:L-carnitine O-palmitoyltransferase; EC 2.3.1.21) reaction brought about by glucagon excess, with or without insulin deficiency, is mediated, at least in part, by elevation in the liver carnitine concentration.