“The supplementation with L-carnitine improves pregnancy outcomes as per a recent study”
The roles of epigenetic, genetic, metabolic as well as other environmental factors including nutrition and stress are becoming apparent for a healthy and successful pregnancy. This raises the probability and a question, how and if, we can perk up the possibility of pregnancy and of a healthy foetus? It has been assessed in research studies the role of metabolic, antioxidant and minerals and the results put forward that these factors may certainly have an influence on the oocytes quality and the pregnancy rates (1).
Nowadays, infertility has been known to exert a negative impact on around 7.3 million couples in United States. One of the seven couples has experienced a trouble while conceiving. In around 40-50% of these cases, the reason remains unidentified.
It may be associated with poor nutritional status or nutritional deficiencies, toxicity, oxidative damage, environmental or heavy metal toxicity, hormonal irregularities, systemic disorders, age-related decline, obesity, or exposure to xenobiotics (2).
In vitro fertilization (IVF) means have been known to exist for more than four decades; on the other hand, pregnancy success rates remain to be comparatively low, with live births per transfer at about 30%.
Antioxidants have been widely identified to be effectual in improving embryo qualities from in vitro fertilization. L-carnitine (LC) has been principally studied for improving the male infertility and embryo or oocyte quality. As LC has been reported to work as an effective antioxidant with very less side-effects, researchers are now considering its use as a treatment for female infertility as well. L-carnitine has been thought to lessen the reactive oxygen species as well as increase the production of adenosine triphosphate (ATP), which may add to the development of a high-quality embryo (2).
As per a recent published research study, researchers have established that the supplementation with L-carnitine significantly improves the human embryo quality and attains improved pregnancy outcomes (4).
Supplementation with L-carnitine throughout the in vitro maturation of oocytes recovers their nuclear maturation and successive embryo development following in vitro fertilization (IVF) (3).
What actually is Carnitine? It is a natural product that gets produced in the mammals from the essential amino acids, viz. methionine as well as lysine or is attained from some dietary sources. It plays a key role in the metabolism of fatty acids and studies confirm its role in the epigenetic modulation of cellular functions. Carnitine is thought to be indispensable for the production of cellular energy and its dysfunction results in a number of diseases. These are associated with an irregular mitochondrial function, as a result, a decreased energy production as well as an increased oxidative stress. Rising data supports the hypothesis of the control of oxidative stress by metabolism. Carnitine plays the role of an antioxidant, helping in the regulation of the ROS pathway, exerting specific preventative action against lipid per oxidation as well as membrane damage. These correspond to some molecular events that conclude in the introduction of a disease process. Studies have recommended that carnitine considerably lessens the oocyte cytoskeletal damage and embryo apoptosis. Also, in combination with antioxidant compounds such as Q10, a shielding action may be hypothesized on ovum and other tissues essential for an unbeaten fertility (5), (6).
In this human embryo study, researchers have found out that the embryo quality got improved and implantation rates got better significantly, together with an improvement in the rates of clinical pregnancy, as well as the ongoing pregnancy. For each and every embryo development phase, L-carnitine in culture media was confirmed to be useful in producing a superior number of good quality embryos in comparison to the control group. The suggested dosing of L-carnitine for male infertility remains characteristically between 3 to 4 grams on a daily basis (5).
Another study reported some more nutrients that may be beneficial to support fertility including fish oil, vitamin D, as well as CoQ10 (5).
REFERENCES:
- https://www.scirp.org/journal/PaperInformation.aspx?PaperID=87313
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30066982
- https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT01783041
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5303734/
- https://rbej.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12958-018-0323-4
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5785901/
