Placidi Martina, Di Emidio Giovanna, Virmani Ashraf, D'Alfonso Angela, Artini Paolo Giovanni, D'Alessandro Anna Maria, Tatone Carla
Department of Life, Health and Environmental Sciences, University of L'Aquila, 67100 L'Aquila, Italy.
Alfasigma B.V., 3528 BG Utrecht, The Netherlands.
Antioxidants (Basel). 2022 Apr 8;11(4):745. doi: 10.3390/antiox11040745.
Recently, the importance of bioenergetics in the reproductive process has emerged. For its energetic demand, the oocyte relies on numerous mitochondria, whose activity increases during embryo development under a fine regulation to limit ROS production. Healthy oocyte mitochondria require a balance of pyruvate and fatty acid oxidation. Transport of activated fatty acids into mitochondria requires carnitine. In this regard, the interest in the role of carnitines as mitochondrial modulators in oocyte and embryos is increasing. Carnitine pool includes the un-esterified l-carnitine (LC) and carnitine esters, such as acetyl-l-carnitine (ALC) and propionyl-l-carnitine (PLC). In this review, carnitine medium supplementation for counteracting energetic and redox unbalance during in vitro culture and cryopreservation is reported. Although most studies have focused on LC, there is new evidence that the addition of ALC and/or PLC may boost LC effects. Pathways activated by carnitines include antiapoptotic, antiglycative, antioxidant, and antiinflammatory signaling. Nevertheless, the potential of carnitine to improve energetic metabolism and oocyte and embryo competence remains poorly investigated. The importance of carnitine as a mitochondrial modulator may suggest that this molecule may exert a beneficial role in ovarian disfunctions associated with metabolic and mitochondrial alterations, including PCOS and reproductive aging.
最近，生物能量学在生殖过程中的重要性已显现出来。由于其能量需求，卵母细胞依赖于众多线粒体，在胚胎发育过程中，线粒体的活性在精细调控下增加，以限制活性氧的产生。健康的卵母细胞线粒体需要丙酮酸和脂肪酸氧化的平衡。活化脂肪酸进入线粒体需要肉碱。在这方面，人们对肉碱作为卵母细胞和胚胎中线粒体调节剂的作用的兴趣与日俱增。肉碱池包括未酯化的左旋肉碱（LC）和肉碱酯，如乙酰左旋肉碱（ALC）和丙酰左旋肉碱（PLC）。在本综述中，报道了补充肉碱培养基以对抗体外培养和冷冻保存期间的能量和氧化还原失衡。尽管大多数研究集中在LC上，但有新证据表明添加ALC和/或PLC可能会增强LC的作用。肉碱激活的途径包括抗凋亡、抗糖化、抗氧化和抗炎信号传导。然而，肉碱改善能量代谢以及卵母细胞和胚胎能力的潜力仍研究不足。肉碱作为线粒体调节剂的重要性可能表明，这种分子可能在与代谢和线粒体改变相关的卵巢功能障碍中发挥有益作用，包括多囊卵巢综合征和生殖衰老。
