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Carnitine affects Octanoate Oxidation to Carbon Dioxide and Dicarboxylic Acids in Colostrum-Deprived Piglets: In Vivo Analysis of Mechanisms Involved Based on CoA- and Carnitine-Ester Profiles^1,2,3,

Division of Nutritional Sciences and Department of Animal Sciences, University of Illinois, Urbana, IL 61801

Newborn, colostrum-deprived piglets (n = 21) were used to study the effects of L-carnitine supplementation on the in vivo oxidation of [1-¹⁴C]octanoate to CO₂ and dicarboxylic acids. Pigs were fitted with arterial and bladder catheters and were infused with octanoate (supplying 35–100% of piglets' energy expenditure) and with or without valproate for a period of 24 h. After achieving steady-state octanoate oxidation, carnitine was coinfused [50 µmol/kg^0.75 prime plus 20 µmol/(h·kg^0.75)], and deviations in the octanoate oxidation rate, dicarboxylic acid excretion rate, and carnitine metabolism were monitored. At the end of the 24-h infusion, samples of liver and muscle were analyzed for carnitine- and CoA-esters by HPLC. Carnitine stimulated octanoate oxidation by 7% (P < 0.05) and decreased dicarboxylic acid excretion by 45% (P < 0.05). Carnitine supplementation increased (P < 0.05) concentrations of carnitine and acetyl carnitine in hepatic tissue (three- and 55-fold, respectively) and plasma (seven- and 11-fold); whereas, muscle-carnitine concentration doubled upon carnitine supplementation, but acetyl carnitine concentration remained unaltered. Urinary excretion of acetyl and free carnitine also increased with carnitine supplementation, but accounted for <10% of carnitine infused. Hepatic total CoA and CoA esters increased with carnitine supplementation, whereas muscle acetyl-CoA decreased. Valproate had only marginal effects on octanoate metabolism. These data confirm the hypothesis that carnitine affects the in vivo oxidation of octanoate in colostrum-deprived piglets and suggest that the effects may be mediated by aiding the export of excess acetyl groups from muscle or by enhancing uptake of octanoate into liver mitochondria.

KEY WORDS: • medium-chain triglycerides • fatty acid • valproate • swine • total parenteral nutrition

¹ Presented in part at Experimental Biology 93, April 1993, New Orleans, LA [Kempen, T.A.T.G. & Odle, J. (1993) Carnitine affects medium-chain fatty acid (MCFA) metabolism in newborn pigs. FASEB J. 7: A64 (abs.); and Lin, X., van Kempen, T.A.T.G. & Odle, J. (1993) Production of dicarboxylic acids (DCA) in newborn pigs infused with various medium-chain fatty acids. FASEB J. 7: A384 (abs.)].

² Supported in part by an International Life Sciences Institute-Nutrition Foundation Future Leader Award, the University of Illinois Agricultural Experimentation Station (#35-379), and the Cooperative State Research Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture (agreement no. 9202617).

³ The costs of publication of this article were defrayed in part by the payment of page charges. This article must therefore be hereby marked "advertisement" in accordance with 18 USC section 1734 solely to indicate this fact.

⁴ Current address: American Cyanamid, P.O. Box 400, Princeton, NJ 08543.

⁵ To whom correspondence and reprint requests should be addressed.

Manuscript received 6 January 1994. Revision accepted 28 July 1994.

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