Effects of genistein dosage with carnitine administration on lipid and carnitine profiles in C57BL/6J mice fed high‐fat diets

Abstract

This study evaluated the effects of supplementing genistein with carnitine in C57BL/6J mice fed high-fat diets. This study also evaluated what dose of genistein is safe and effective when combined with carnitine. Genistein with carnitine had no effect on food and energy intakes, but decreased body weight and abdominal and back fat weights. Serum triglyceride and total cholesterol were significantly lower than in the high-fat diet group. Concentrations of carnitine in serum and liver were significantly higher in the genistein with carnitine groups than control groups. Genistein treatment induced dose dependent increases of carnitine levels in serum. The carnitine and gesistein groups had the lowest hepatic acyl-CoA synthetase and peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-¥ã expressions, but the highest carnitine palmitoyltransferase-I expression. Our study suggests that genistein with carnitine had synergistic effects on obesity induced by high-fat diets. Further work is needed to describe mechanisms of the antiobesity and hypolipidemic effects of genistein with carnitine. (This work was supported by grant No. (R01-2005-000-11028-0) from the Basic Research Program of the Korea Science & Engineering Foundation.)