Reply to Arduini et al.: Acetyl- l -carnitine and the brain: Epigenetics, energetics, and stress

Arduini et al. raise interesting issues related to mechanisms involving carnitine (1). The authors ask whether there is a free-carnitine deficiency in Flinders Sensitive Line rats (FSL) (2) and, more broadly, raise the question of whether the deficiency of acetyl-l-carnitine (LAC) occurs systemically or in the brain in FSL (1). We found that carnitine acetyltransferase (CrAT) mRNA levels in the ventral dentate gyrus (vDG) were not different between FSL and Flinders Resistant Line animals; thus, the source of the deficiency is likely to be systemic. We are measuring blood levels of LAC and carnitine in FSL as well as other animal models and in …