REVIEW article
Front. Nutr.
Sec. Nutrition and Metabolism
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fnut.2025.1508441
L-carnitine: New Perspectives on the Management of Preterm Infants
Provisionally accepted
- 1Department of Pediatrics, Zhongda Hospital, Southeast University;, Nanjing, Liaoning Province, China
- 2pediatrics, Taikang Xianlin Drum Tower Hospital, Nanjing, China
- 3Department of Respiratory Medicine, Children’s Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, China
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L-carnitine, a quaternary ammonium compound derived from amino acids, serves an essential role in fatty acid metabolism. The functions of L-carnitine include assisting long-chain fatty acyl-CoA across the mitochondrial membrane to promote mitochondrial β-oxidation, reducing oxidative stress damage, and maintaining cellular energy homeostasis. Therefore, postnatal L-carnitine deficiency may lead to impaired fatty acid oxidation, resulting in clinical manifestations of hypoglycemia, hypothermia, acidosis and infection. However, there is still no clear consensus on the need for prophylactic use of L-carnitine in the treatment of preterm infants. This review synthesizes the theoretical foundations and clinical evidence for L-carnitine in preterm infant management, revealing that L-carnitine exerts demonstrable effects on promoting neurodevelopment and preventing neonatal complications. Furthermore, it explores the potential value and current controversies surrounding its prophylactic application.
Keywords: L-carnitine, Preterm infants, Neurodevelopment, Hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy, Respiratory distress syndrome Initialisms list； CoA: coenzyme A, CPT: carnitine palmitoyl transferase, CACT: carnitine-acylcarnitine translocase, FAO: Fatty Acid Oxidation, HMG-CoA: hydroxy methylglutaryl coenzyme A, PN:parenteral nutrition, EUGR:extrauterine growth restriction, HIE ： hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy
Received: 16 Apr 2025; Accepted: 07 Aug 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Mo, Lin, Qiao, Guo, Yao, Zhou, Cao and Liu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Heng Liu, pediatrics, Taikang Xianlin Drum Tower Hospital, Nanjing, China
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