Protective Effect of L-Carnitine on Level of Malondialdehyde in Diazinon-induced Lipid Peroxidation in Rats

Background and Diazinon is an organophosphate insecticide used mainly in agriculture, horticulture, and animal husbandry. Exposure to diazinon affects the redox process, the activity of antioxidant enzymes and could increase the lipid peroxidation in many organs. This study aimed at examining the chronic effect of diazinone on cell membrane lipid peroxidation and the protective effect of l-carnitin on this process. In this study, male Wistar rats were divided into 8 groups. The groups were administrated normal saline (control group), diazinon (20 mg/kg), l-carnitine (50,100,150 mg/kg), and a combination of diazinon with the mentioned doses of l-carnitine, intraperitonealy (IP) for 4 weeks. The rats were anesthetized with ketamine 24 hours after the last injection and 2 ml blood was taken from their heart. Then, Lappena method was used to measure the serum concentrations of malodialdehiyde (MDA). The data was analyzed using SPSS and the differences between the groups were analyzed applying cruskal-wallis and Mann-Whitney test at the significance level of 0.05. The serum concentration of MDA was significantly higher in rats exposed to diazinon compared with the control group (P= 0.009). A significant decrease was seen in the serum concentration of MDA in the groups exposed to diazinone/l-carnitine (P= 0.014). Diazinon induce the production of free radicals and oxidative stress. Probably, l-carnitine can reduce diazinon-induced lipid peroxidation in cell membrane by scavenging free radicals.