Effect of acute L-carnitine administration alone or combination with sodium valproate on pentylenetetrazole- induced seizures in mice

L-carnitine, as an endogenous compound, has paradoxical effects on seizures. This study aimed to evaluate the effect of acute administration of L-carnitine alone or combination with sodium valproate on pentylenetetrazole (PTZ) induced myoclonic and tonic seizure thresholds in mice.

In this study, 64 male NMRI mice (25-30 g) were divided into 8 groups (8 animals in each group). Normal saline (as solvent), L-carnitine (50, 100, 150 and 200 mg/kg), sodium valproate (50 and 150 mg/kg) and combination of the ineffective doses of L-carnitine/sodium valproate (100.50 mg/kg) were administered by gavage. L-carnitine and sodium valproate were administrated 4 and 2 hours before seizure induction, respectively. Intravenous infusion of PTZ was used to induce seizure induction. All data were analyzed using a one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) via SPSS version 21.0 software.

The results showed that L-carnitine at doses of 150 and 200 mg/kg significantly increased the threshold of myoclonic and tonic seizures compared to the control group (P<0.01). Also, combination of the L-carnitine/sodium valproate significantly increased the threshold for tonic seizures compared to the ineffective dose of sodium valproate (P=0.007).

 The results of this study showed that acute administration of L-carnitine increases the threshold of myoclonic and tonic seizures. Co-administration of L-carnitine with sodium valproate significantly increases the threshold for tonic seizures, also. This may be due to changes in the metabolism of sodium valproate.