THE VARIATION OF CARNITINE CONTENT IN HUMAN BLOOD-CELLS DURING DISEASE - A STUDY IN BACTERIAL-INFECTION AND INFLAMMATORY BOWEL-DISEASE

Carnitine in erythrocytes and leucocytes represents a small but essent ial part of the cellular carnitine pool. It was the objective of this study to document the changes of blood cell camitine concentrations in disease entities with an enhanced cellular metabolism during acute an d chronic inflammation. The plasma, erythrocyte, lymphocyte, granulocy te and thrombocyte camitine concentrations were determined in 23 patie nts (11.0 +/- 8.8 years) with bacterial infections and nine patients ( 17.5 +/- 2.4 years) with Crohn disease and compared to 20 healthy cont rols (27.0 +/- 10.6 years). In patients with bacterial infections the granulocyte camitine concentrations (126.4 +/- 73.5 nmoles/10(6) cells ) were higher (P <0.001) than in controls (37.9 +/- 22.8 nmoles/10(6) eels). In patients with Crohn disease the lymphocyte carnitine concent rations (169.4 +/- 108.2 nmoles/10(6) cells) were increased (P < 0.001 ) when compared to controls (48.1 +/- 18.3 nmoles/10(6) cells). The pl asma carnitine concentrations were decreased (P < 0.05) in both patien t groups, whereas they were increased (P < 0.05) in the patients' eryt hrocytes. The carnitine concentrations in thrombocytes did not differ significantly within the individual groups.