Doctoral Dissertations

Date of Award

8-1986

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

Major

Human Ecology

Major Professor

Dileep S. Sachan

Committee Members

William M. Bass, Walter R. Farkas, Jane R. Savage

Abstract

An assessment of the serum carnitine concentrations was made in 54 cancer patients receiving chemotherapy in an outpatient clinic and 81 hospitalized noncancer patients. The nonesterified carnitine, acid insoluble acylcarnitine, and total carnitine concentrations were similar to noncancer patients and within the normal range. However, the acid soluble acylcarnitine concentration was significantly lower in cancer patients (6.7 vs 11.5 nmol/ml) than in noncancer patients. The low acid soluble acylcarnitine concentration resulted in the cancer patients having a lower acylcarnitine to nonesterified carnitine ratio than the noncancer patients.

To further examine the carnitine status of cancer patients, 2 to 3 specimens of serum and 24-hour urine specimens were collected over a 2-3 month period from 25 free-living cancer patients receiving chemotherapy, 14 apparently healthy controls, and 7 miscellaneous noncancer subjects.

The serum cholesterol, triglycerides, phospholipids, and nonesterified fatty acids were within the normal range for most subjects. Elevated triglycerides were observed in 43 and 36% of the noncancer and cancer subjects, respectively, with the cancer patients having the higher lipid concentrations. The serum carnitine concentrations, of both cancer and noncancer subjects were within normal range. However, the female cancer subjects had significantly lower nonesterified carnitine, acid soluble and acid insoluble acylcarnitines, and total carnitine than did the control females which was partly due to 1-2 fold increase in renal clearance. The male lung cancer subjects exhibited a similar acylcarnitine profile to the females while the male gastrointestinal cancer subjects had high serum and low clearance of acylcarnitines. In contrast to the survey population, no significant difference was observed in the serum acylcarnitine to nonesterified carnitine ratio.

It is concluded that most cancer patients had decreased serum acid soluble acylcarnitine concentrations and an increase in renal clearance of acid soluble as well as acid insoluble acylcarnitine in comparison to noncancer subjects.

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