Purpose

Laevo (l)-carnitine plays important roles in reducing the cytotoxic effects of free fatty acids by forming acyl-carnitine and promoting beta-oxidation, leading to alleviation of cell damage. Recently, the mitochondrial functions in morula has been shown to decrease with the maternal age. Here, we assessed the effect of l-carnitine on mitochondrial function in human embryos and embryo development.

Methods

To examine the effect of l-carnitine on mitochondrial function in morulae, 38 vitrified–thawed embryos at the 6–11-cell stage on day 3 after ICSI were donated from 19 couples. Each couple donated two embryos. Two siblings from each couple were divided randomly into two groups and were cultured in medium with or without 1 mM l-carnitine. The oxygen consumption rates (OCRs) were measured at morula stage. The development of 1029 zygotes cultured in medium with or without l-carnitine was prospectively analyzed.

Results

Addition of l-carnitine to the culture medium significantly increased the OCRs of morulae and improved the morphologically-good blastocyst formation rate per zygote compared with sibling embryos. Twenty healthy babies were born from embryos cultured in l-carnitine-supplemented medium after single embryo transfers.

Conclusion(s)

l-carnitine is a promising culture medium supplement that might be able to counteract the decreased mitochondrial function in human morula stage embryos.

中文翻译：

---

Laevo ( l )-肉碱治疗逆转人类胚胎的线粒体功能

目的

Laevo (l)-肉碱通过形成酰基肉碱和促进 β-氧化，从而减轻细胞损伤，在降低游离脂肪酸的细胞毒作用方面发挥重要作用。最近，桑椹中的线粒体功能已被证明随着母亲年龄的增长而下降。在这里，我们评估了左旋肉碱对人类胚胎和胚胎发育中线粒体功能的影响。

方法

为了检查的效果升肉碱在桑椹胚线粒体功能，38 ICSI后第3天的6-11细胞阶段玻璃化冷冻解冻胚胎从19对捐赠。每对夫妇捐赠了两个胚胎。每对夫妇的两个兄弟姐妹被随机分成两组，并在含有或不含 1 mM l-肉碱的培养基中培养。在桑椹期测量耗氧率 (OCR)。在培养基中培养具有或不具有1029个合子发展升肉碱前瞻性分析。

结果

的加成升肉碱到培养基中显著增加桑椹胚的同时进行文本识别和改进的与同胞胚胎相比每合子的形态良好胚泡形成速率。20名健康婴儿被从培养的胚胎出生升肉碱的培养基单胚胎移植后。

结论

升肉碱是一种很有前途的培养基的补充，或许能够抵消人类桑椹胚期胚胎线粒体功能下降。