title: Serum carnitine concentration is decreased in patients with Lyme borreliosis.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Lyme borreliosis (LB) is a serious infectious disease. Carnitine plays a crucial role in metabolism and inflammatory responses. Carnitine may be important in improving neuronal dysfunction and loss of neurons.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To evaluate serum carnitine concentration in adult patients with various clinical types of LB.
  
  
  METHODS
  Groups: 1) patients with erythema migrans (EM, n=16), 2) neuroborreliosis (NB, n=10), 3) post-Lyme disease (PLD, n=22) and healthy controls (HC, n=32). Total (TC) and free (FC) carnitine were determined with the spectrophotometric method.
  
  
  RESULTS
  TC levels (44.9±10.4, 28.0±8.4, 35.9±15.6 μmol/L) in the EM, NB and PLD patients were lower than in HC (54.0±11.4 μmol/L), p < 0.001. FC levels (32.7±7.7, 23.6±6.8, 26.3±11.2 μmol/L) in the EM, NB and PLD patients were lower than in HC (40.5±7.6 μmol/L), p < 0.001. AC levels (12.2±5.2, 4.4±2.6, 9.6±7.4 μmol/L) in the EM, NB and PLD patients were lower in the NB and PLD patients than in HC (13.5±8.40 μmol/L), p <0.001. AC/FC ratio was 0.31±0.14, 0.18±0.09, 0.39±0.33 in the EM, NB and PLD patients.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  LB patients exhibit a significant decrease of their serum carnitine concentrations. The largest changes were in the NB and PLD patients. To prevent late complications of the disease a possibility of early supplementation with carnitine should be considered. Further studies are required to explain the pathophysiological significance of our findings.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry, Radioimmunology and Experimental Medicine, The Children's Memorial Health Institute, Warsaw, Poland.
authors.forename: Alina
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kępka
authors.affiliation: Department of Infectious Diseases and Neuroinfections, Medical University of Białystok, Białystok, Poland.
authors.forename: Sławomir A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Pancewicz
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry, Radioimmunology and Experimental Medicine, The Children's Memorial Health Institute, Warsaw, Poland.
authors.forename: Roman M
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Janas
authors.affiliation: Department of Infectious Diseases and Neuroinfections, Medical University of Białystok, Białystok, Poland.
authors.forename: Renata
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Świerzbińska
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000907:Antibodies, Bacterial / Q000097:blood; D002331:Carnitine / Q000097:blood*; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008193:Lyme Disease / Q000097:blood* / Q000145:classification; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D000907:Antibodies, Bacterial; D002331:Carnitine