For eight weeks, mice were fed a high fat diet and given a supplement of l-carnitine for the last four weeks. Fatty liver disease developed in all the mice during the high fat diet/no carnitine phase of the experiment. When l-carnitine – an amino acid responsible for transporting fatty acids into the cell mitochondria for metabolism – was given, the fatty liver (hepatic steatosis) and liver cell damage was prevented even as the mice continued on the high fat diet. Another effect of carnitine supplementation was that insulin receptors in the liver become more sensitized, leading to the conclusion that “supplementation of l-carnitine is a promising approach for prevention and treatment of metabolic syndrome-related nonalcoholic steatohepatitis.”
(Hepatology Research, April 2016)
