Possible Interaction: Carnitine and Choline

“In guinea pigs, however, choline supplementation resulted in a significantly lower urinary excretion and higher plasma total carnitine concentrations.”

“These … that choline supplementation results in … urinary excretion of carnitine in young adult women, that guinea pigs are a suitable animal model for studying the effect of choline supplementation on … status in humans, and that choline results in a conservation of carnitine in guinea pigs and perhaps in humans.”

“Serum and urinary carnitine increased during wk 1 in the carnitine-supplemented group and, although the introduction of choline to this group depressed serum and urinary carnitine , they remained significantly greater than control.”

“Also, the preference for choline over carnitine as an acetyl acceptor is seen to result from both electrostatic and steric blocks to carnitine binding at the active site.”

“The latter process is stimulated by carnitine and choline in a synergistic way in cells utilizing glucose as the main energetic substrate.”

“ Choline , however, was incapable of reversing an inhibitory effect exerted by carnitine on acetylcholine synthesis in cortex cells from suckling animals.”