Effects Of L-carnitine On Regulation Of Circadian Clock And Lipid Metabolism In Mice

Circadian clocks play a principal role in coordinating daily physiology,and their disruption can evoke metabolic diseases,including obesity,diabetes and cardiovascular disease.In addition,L-carnitine can lower blood and hepatic lipid levels as a carrier of activated fatty acids across the inner mitochondrial membrane,and thus it can accelerate lipid metabolism.However,whether L-carnitine consumption may improve circadian and lipid metabolism disorder is still largely unknown.Here,to investigate effects of L-carnitine on regulation of circadian and lipid metabolism disorder in mice,we developed two kinds of animal models,which were time-delayed pattern of eating and chronic jet lag,respectively.Results obtained in the present study indicated that L-carnitine significantly inhibited body weight increase and epididymal fat weight gain induced by the time-delayed feeding.In addition,L-carnitine administration decreased levels of serum lipids and expressions of lipid synthetic genes,which were significantly elevated by the irregularfeeding.Moreover,L-carnitine feeding was proved to be able to accelerate the time course of phase shift after the chronic jet lag.Furthermore,L-carnitine could effectively counteract the negative alterations induced by the chronic jet lag,including the abnormal alterations in the expression of the clock genes and lipid metabolism genes in the peripheral tissue.Therefore,the data obtained in the present study strongly suggest that L-carnitine supplementation might prevent the disruption of the circadian clock and lipid metabolic disorders induced by the time-delayed pattern of eating or the chronic jet lag.