THE EFFECT OF L-CARNITINE ON NEUTROPHIL CHEMILUMINESCENCE RESPONSE IN CHRONIC RENAL FAILURE PATIENTS

Neutrophile abnormalities have been reported in chronic renal failure patients. In this study, the effect of l-carnitine on neutrophile chemiluminescence (CL) response (invitro and invivo) was investigated in patients on hemodialysis. Fifteen hemodialized patients and 15 healthy age matched controls were studied. The zymosan induced oxidative metabolism of phagocytes was assessed by means of luminol dependent CL. Control and patients' neutrophils were isolated and CL were determined after 10 minutes incubation with 0, 25, 50 and 100 nmol/ml l-carnitine. The CL response of neutrophils in patient group (2933+393) was significantly lower than the healthy controls (4496+717, p<0.001). Significant increases were found in the neutrophil CL response with 25, 50, 100 nmol/ml l-carnitine concentrations (p<0.001) (3527+459, 4372+561, 4322+636, respectively), but same concentrations of l-carnitine did not cause any change in controls' neutrophils. Patients' neutrophil CL responses were reached to controls' levels when incubated with 50nmol/ml l-carnitine. After the in vitro study, 2xlg/day P.O. l-carnitine were given to these patients for 30 days. At the end of this period, CL response was restudied (4562+560) and found to be significantly increased when compared with the before l-carnitine values(p<0.001). These values were not different from the healthy controls. Our findings indicate that neutrophil CL response is significantly increased by l-carnitine in chronic renal failure patients.