Y. Masoumi-Ardakani¹, H. Fallah², B. Shahouzehi³

¹Physiology Research Center, Institute of Basic and Clinical Physiology Sciences, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran;
²Student Research Committee, School of Medicine,
Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran;
³Cardiovascular Research Center, Institute of Basic and Clinical Physiology Sciences, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran;
e-mail: bshahouzehi@yahoo.com, bshahouzehi@gmail.com

Received: 08 May 2019; Accepted: 18 October 2019

Diabetes is a group of disorders characterized by elevated blood glucose and insulin secretion defect. Previous studies have reported L-carnitine beneficial and hypoglycemic effects in diabetic models. L carnitine anti-inflammatory properties in diabetes were not assessed perfectly, and there is a lack of information about this matter. Therefore, we designed this study and evaluated L-carnitine different doses supplementation on pro-inflammatory cytokines in STZ-induced diabetic rats’ pancreas and serum. We selected 48 male rats (200 ± 10 g) and randomly divided them into six groups (n = 8). Group 1, control; group 2, Diabetic control (DC); groups 3-6, STZ-induced diabetic rats which received L-carnitine different doses as follow; 300, 200, 100 and 50 mg/kg/day by intraperitoneal injection for 5 weeks. When the study ended, serum and pancreas samples were collected and cytokines levels were measured by specific ELISA kits. Our results showed that in diabetic rats, pro-inflammatory cytokines levels were elevated. Two L-carnitine doses 300 and 200 mg/kg/day showed beneficial effects and 300 mg/kg/day showed more effective and significant effects than other doses. The 300 mg/kg significantly reduced IL-1β and IL-6 levels in pancreas and serum. Our data proved the protective effects of intraperitoneal L-carnitine administration against diabetes and inflammation in diabetic rats. Indeed, L-carnitine long term supplementation through the intraperitoneal injection can be considered as a good and safe therapeutic strategy in diabetes.