Determination of overt carnitine palmitoyltransferase by reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography

A method for the determination of carnitine palmitoyltransferase I (CPT I; EC 2.3.1.19) in isolated rat liver mitochondria by reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography is described. Enzyme activity is assayed by direct determination of coenzyme A (CoA) released from palmitoyl-CoA within 60 min by a linear gradient system. CPT 1 in rat liver mitochondria can be assayed from only 30 micrograms of mitochondrial protein per millilitre of assay mixture. The changes in the kinetic parameters of CPT I, including Ki for malonyl-CoA, resulting from the fasting-feeding cycle are also discussed.     

Metabolomic profiling reveals a role for CPT1c in neuronal oxidative metabolism

Background

Carnitine Palmitoyltransferase-1c (CPT1c) is a neuron specific homologue of the carnitine acyltransferase family of enzymes. CPT1 isoenzymes transfer long chain acyl groups to carnitine. This constitutes a rate setting step for mitochondrial fatty acid beta-oxidation by facilitating the initial step in acyl transfer to the mitochondrial matrix. In general, neurons do not heavily utilize fatty acids for bioenergetic needs and definitive enzymatic activity has been unable to be demonstrated for CPT1c. Although there are studies suggesting an enzymatic role of CPT1c, its role in neurochemistry remains elusive.

Results

In order to better understand how CPT1c functions in neural metabolism, we performed unbiased metabolomic profiling on wild-type (WT) and CPT1c knockout (KO) mouse brains. Consistent with the notion that CPT1c is not involved in fatty acid beta-oxidation, there were no changes in metabolites associated with fatty acid oxidation. Endocannabinoids were suppressed in the CPT1c KO, which may explain the suppression of food intake seen in CPT1c KO mice. Although products of beta-oxidation were unchanged, small changes in carnitine and carnitine metabolites were observed. Finally, we observed changes in redox homeostasis including a greater than 2-fold increase in oxidized glutathione. This indicates that CPT1c may play a role in neural oxidative metabolism.

Conclusions

Steady-state metabolomic analysis of CPT1c WT and KO mouse brains identified a small number of metabolites that differed between CPT1c WT and KO mice. The subtle changes in a broad range of metabolites in vivo indicate that CPT1c does not play a significant or required role in fatty acid oxidation; however, it could play an alternative role in neuronal oxidative metabolism.

     

Current Methods for Determination of L-Carnitine and Acylcarnitines

L-Carnitine as endogenous compound plays an important role within several metabolic pathways and a deficiency of L-carnitine can cause adverse effects in physiological and/or mental state of health and disease. The prevention of diseases related to carnitine deficiency requires, first of all, the exact determination of L-carnitine and its esters in biological material at pmol/cm³ level. A series of analytical procedures based on biochemical assays as well as on physical methods are available today. Determination of free and total carnitine is sometimes sufficient for a clinical diagnosis, but in most cases, such as in newborn screening for genetic disorders, detailed qualitative and quantitative L-carnitine/acylcarnitine profiling is needed. Technological progress has also revolutionized the determination of carnitines. Today, comprehensive and diagnostically relevant information can be obtained by mass spectrometry. An overview is given of the technical and methodological developments in carnitine analysis and some applications, such as in neonatal screening, diabetes mellitus, and cardiomyopathy.     

Comparison of the Catalytic Activities of Three Isozymes of Carnitine Palmitoyltransferase 1 Expressed in COS7 Cells

The enzyme carnitine palmitoyltransferase 1 (CPT1) catalyzes the transfer of an acyl group from acyl-CoA to carnitine to form acylcarnitine, and three isozymes of it, 1a, 1b, and 1c, have been identified. Interestingly, the 1c isozyme was reported to show no enzymatic activity, but it was not clearly demonstrated whether this inactivity was due to its dysfunction or due to its poor expression. In the present study, we (a) expressed individual CPT1 isozymes in COS7 cells, (b) evaluated quantitatively their expression levels by Western blotting using the three bacterially expressed CPT1 isozymes as standards, and (c) evaluated their catalytic activities. With these experiments, we successfully demonstrated that the absence of the enzymatic activity of the 1c isozyme was due to its dysfunction. In addition, experiments on the preparation of standard CPT1 isozymes revealed that the 1c isozyme did not show the standard relationship between migration in an SDS–PAGE gel and molecular size. We further tried to determine why the 1c isozyme was inert by preparing chimeric CPT1 between 1a and 1c, but no clear conclusion could be drawn because one of the chimeric CPT1s was not sufficiently expressed.     

Current Methods for Determination of <Emphasis Type="Italic">L</Emphasis>-Carnitine and Acylcarnitines

Summary. L-Carnitine as endogenous compound plays an important role within several metabolic pathways and a deficiency of L-carnitine can cause adverse effects in physiological and/or mental state of health and disease. The prevention of diseases related to carnitine deficiency requires, first of all, the exact determination of L-carnitine and its esters in biological material at pmol/cm³ level. A series of analytical procedures based on biochemical assays as well as on physical methods are available today. Determination of free and total carnitine is sometimes sufficient for a clinical diagnosis, but in most cases, such as in newborn screening for genetic disorders, detailed qualitative and quantitative L-carnitine/acylcarnitine profiling is needed. Technological progress has also revolutionized the determination of carnitines. Today, comprehensive and diagnostically relevant information can be obtained by mass spectrometry. An overview is given of the technical and methodological developments in carnitine analysis and some applications, such as in neonatal screening, diabetes mellitus, and cardiomyopathy.     

Molecular recognition in carnitine acyltransferases

We are designing and synthesizing rigid guests to probe the topography of the carnitine acyltransferases, regulatory enzymes in lipid metabolism. Our designs are based on structural studies of substrates and possible molecular mechanisms of enzymatic activity. Recent X-ray,¹H NMR, and force-field computational studies on carnitine and acetylcarnitine, coupled with the known stereospecificity for activity in carnitine acyltransferases, have led us to propose a molecular mechanism for acyl transfer in these enzymes. The folded conformation of an acylcarnitine is most populated and should be preferred for binding to these enzymes, because, in this conformation, the acyloxy is the most sterically accessible. There are four key recognition sites on the enzymes: I, carboxylate; II, trimethylammonium; III, coenzyme A; IV, acyl. Sites, I, II and III serve as the three loci required to create a chiral environment on the enzymes for carnitine. An addition-elimination reaction involving the formation of a tetrahedral intermediate is suggested as the mechanism for O-to-S acyl transfer. This proposed tetrahedral intermediate is chiral and the enzymes should prefer theR configuration at this center. Based on this proposal, conformationally rigid tetrahedral-intermediate analogues have been designed, synthesized and assayed. Morpholinium and 2-hydroxymorpholinium derivatives inhibit carnitine acetyltransferase and palmitoyltransferase. Because of rigidity at their two chiral centers, these inhibitors serve as probes of molecular topography of recognition sites, I, II, and IV.     

Analysis of plasma free fatty acid cyanomethyl derivatives by GC-NPD for the diagnosis of mitochondrial fatty acid oxidation disorders

Summary Early diagnosis of fatty acid oxidation (FAO) disorders is important to reduce severe morbidity and mortality. Although analysis of plasma free fatty acids (FFAs) is frequently performed using stable isotope-dilution gas chromatography-mass-spectrometry (GC-MS), there are institutions where the required instrumentation is not available to support a rapid work-up of acutely ill patients. For this reason, we have developed a novel cyanomethyl derivatization method for FFAs which is followed by GC analysis of the resulting esters using nitrogen-phosphorus detector (NPD) for the rapid diagnosis of mitochondrial fatty acid oxidation disorders. FFAs were extracted from plasma and derivatized to the cyanomethyl ester by heating with bromoacetonitrile at 60°C for 30 min GC-NPD analysis was then performed. The mean recoveries of C6:0-C18:0FFAs were between 87% abd 96%. The method detection limits (S/N=3) were 0.1–0.5 ng for C6:0-C14:0 FFAs, and 0.001–0.01 ng for C16:0-C18:0 FFAs. We succesfully performed differential diagnosis of representative FAO disorders from the confimed patient's plasmas. This simple method offers cost-effective and time-saving alternative to GC-MS for the biochemical diagnosis of selected FAO disorders.     

Separation of ADAM derivatives of carnitine and acyl-carnitines by capillary electrophoresis

 The separation of carnitine, acetylcarnitine and palmitoylcarnitine as ADAM (9-anthryldiazo-methane) derivatives was performed using capillary electrophoresis. A buffer system with 90% methanol and various amounts of phosphoric acid and micelle forming SDS was optimized with respect to the best resolution of the carnitine derivatives. A detection limit of 10 μmol/l or 32 ng carnitine was determined by laser induced fluorescence detection. Under optimized conditions low carnitine contents in acylcarnitine standards have been determined. Received: 30 May 1996/Accepted: 17 June 1996     

Separation of ADAM derivatives of carnitine and acyl-carnitines by capillary electrophoresis

 The separation of carnitine, acetylcarnitine and palmitoylcarnitine as ADAM (9-anthryldiazo-methane) derivatives was performed using capillary electrophoresis. A buffer system with 90% methanol and various amounts of phosphoric acid and micelle forming SDS was optimized with respect to the best resolution of the carnitine derivatives. A detection limit of 10 μmol/l or 32 ng carnitine was determined by laser induced fluorescence detection. Under optimized conditions low carnitine contents in acylcarnitine standards have been determined. Received: 30 May 1996/Accepted: 17 June 1996     

Determination of carnitine and acylcarnitines in plasma by high-performance liquid chromatography/electrospray ionization ion trap tandem mass spectrometry

A high-performance liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry method was developed for the determination of carnitine, its biosynthetic precursor butyrobetaine, and eight acylcarnitines in plasma. The procedure includes a solid-phase extraction for carnitine and short- and medium-chain acylcarnitines, and a liquid-liquid extraction for protein-bound long-chain acylcarnitines, followed by separation on a reversed-phase column in the presence of a volatile ion-pairing reagent. Detection was achieved using an ion-trap mass spectrometer run in the tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS) mode. The choice of the matrix for calibrators, used for quantification of these endogenous compounds, was also investigated. Validation was performed for standard quality controls diluted with 4% bovine serum albumin solution and for spiked plasma quality control samples at concentrations between 0.5 and 80 micromol/L, depending on the compound. Intra- and inter-day precisions for the determination of carnitine were below 3.4% and accuracies were between 95.2 and 109.0%. Application of the method to the diagnosis of pathological acylcarnitine profiles of metabolic disorders in a patient suffering from methylmalonic aciduria is presented. The method allows quantification of carnitine, butyrobetaine, acetylcarnitine and propionylcarnitine, and semiquantitative analysis of medium- and long-chain acylcarnitines. In contrast with other methods, no derivatization step is needed.     

Quantification of total and free carnitine in human plasma by hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry

Carnitine is an endogenous quaternary amine whose primary function is to shuttle long chain fatty acids to the mitochondrial matrix, where they subsequently undergo beta oxidation. Accurate quantification of total and free carnitine is essential for the accurate diagnosis of a number of inborn errors of metabolism, including disorders of fatty acid oxidation as well as various organic acidurias. Early methods for carnitine measurement were enzyme based. Recently, liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry has become the method of choice for carnitine measurement. Typically, carnitine is derivitized to from a butyl ester, thus improving its ionization and retention characteristics. A potential problem with this approach is that the acidic conditions used to carry out the reaction may hydrolyze other acyl esters, resulting in ex-vivo artifacts. Consequently, we developed a hydrophobic interaction chromatography (HILIC) tandem mass spectrometry method for the quantification of carnitine. The use of HILIC allows for the derivitization step to be circumvented, while still allowing for favorable chromatographic performance. The method was shown to be accurate, precise, and robust.     

Quantification of plasma carnitine and acylcarnitines by high-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry using online solid-phase extraction

Carnitine is an amino acid derivative that plays a key role in energy metabolism. Endogenous carnitine is found in its free form or esterified with acyl groups of several chain lengths. Quantification of carnitine and acylcarnitines is of particular interest for screening for research and metabolic disorders. We developed a method with online solid-phase extraction coupled to high-performance liquid chromatography and tandem mass spectrometry to quantify carnitine and three acylcarnitines with different polarity (acetylcarnitine, octanoylcarnitine, and palmitoylcarnitine). Plasma samples were deproteinized with methanol, loaded on a cation exchange trapping column and separated on a reversed-phase C8 column using heptafluorobutyric acid as an ion-pairing reagent. Considering the endogenous nature of the analytes, we quantified with the standard addition method and with external deuterated standards. Solid-phase extraction and separation were achieved within 8 min. Recoveries of carnitine and acylcarnitines were between 98 and 105 %. Both quantification methods were equally accurate (all values within 84 to 116 % of target concentrations) and precise (day-to-day variation of less than 18 %) for all carnitine species and concentrations analyzed. The method was used successfully for determination of carnitine and acylcarnitines in different human samples. In conclusion, we present a method for simultaneous quantification of carnitine and acylcarnitines with a rapid sample work-up. This approach requires small sample volumes and a short analysis time, and it can be applied for the determination of other acylcarnitines than the acylcarnitines tested. The method is useful for applications in research and clinical routine.

Carnitine in Pregnancy

Summary. By the 12^th week of gestation, mean whole blood and plasma carnitine levels are already significantly (p<0.01) lower than those of controls, with a further significant (p<0.01) decrease up to parturition. Diminished carnitine levels may cause a downregulation of carnitine palmitoyltransferase1 (CPT1), both the liver isoform (CPT1A) and muscle isoform (CPT1B), carnitine palmitoyltransferase2 (CPT2), and carnitine acetyltransferase (CRAT) in white blood cells of pregnant women, as determined by real time PCR using the LightCyclerSYBR Green technology.L-Carnitine-L-tartrate supplementation of 2 g/d resulted in an up to 10-fold increase of the relative mRNA abundances of CPT1B, CPT2, and OCTN2 and a 5-fold increase of CPT1A, and CRAT.There is a relationship between the relative mRNA levels of CPT1A and CPT1B and the FFA plasma levels. The substitution of 2 g L-carnitine-L-tartrate/d resulted in significant (p<0.001) lower FFA levels compared to untreated controls and the groups substituted with 0.5 and 1 g L-carnitine/d although plasma carnitine levels were not significantly increased. The most substantial effect was the reduced portion of acylcarnitines on total carnitine in those women receiving 2 g L-carnitine-L-tartrate.Carnitine substitution resulted in an enhanced excretion of both, free carnitine and acylcarnitines, whereas acetylcarnitine accounts for 50–65% of total acylcarnitines.The results of the present study provide evidence that L-carnitine supplementation in pregnancy in sufficient doses avoids a striking increase of plasma FFAs, which are thought to be the main cause of insulin resistance and consequently gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM).     

Quantification of carnitine esters by high-performance liquid chromatography. Effect of feeding medium-chain triglycerides on the plasma carnitine ester profile.

A high-performance liquid chromatographic (HPLC) technique was developed using commercially available derivatization reagents and commonly used reversed-phase HPLC column chemistry to analyze plasma samples for their carnitine ester content. The method proved to be sufficiently sensitive to determine changes in the carnitine ester profile in plasma resulting from metabolic disorders or metabolic insults. The method was tested using plasma samples obtained from pigs fed medium-chain triglycerides (MCT) of different chain lengths (four to seven carbons). The MCT feeding was associated with transient increases in plasma carnitine and carnitine esters, and feeding odd-chain MCT (tri-C5 or tri-C7) led to elevated levels of propionylcarnitine in plasma.     

Determination of carnitine and acylcarnitines in urine by high-performance liquid chromatography-electrospray ionization ion trap tandem mass spectrometry

A high-performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry method has been developed for the simultaneous determination of native carnitine and eight acylcarnitines in urine. The procedure uses a solid-phase extraction on a cation-exchange column and the separation is performed without derivatization within 17 min on a reversed-phase C8 column in the presence of a volatile ion-pairing reagent. The detector was an ion trap mass spectrometer and quantification was carried out in the MS-MS mode. Validation was done for aqueous standards at ranges between 0.75 and 200 micromol/l, depending on the compound. Carnitine was quantified in urine and comparison with a radioenzymatic assay gave a satisfactory correlation (R2 = 0.981). The assay could be successfully applied to the diagnostic of pathological acylcarnitines profile of metabolic disorders in urines of patients suffering from different organic acidurias.