Effect of L-carnitine against acute mitoxantrone toxicity in mice

Various experiments were performed in our laboratory to define a possible role for carnitine derivatives in mitoxantrone (MX) therapy. We report here the results of the effect of L-carnitine (LCAR) on the lethal toxicity of MX in mice. MX was administered intravenously at doses of 7, 9, 11, 13, 15 or 17 mg kg −1 either alone or in combination with LCAR at a single intravenous dose of 200 mg kg −1 . The dependence of the probability of death on various doses was evaluated for the MX-LCAR combination compared to MX alone. From these experiments, the following lethal dose fifty (LD 50 ) values were calculated: LD 50 for MX alone was 15.2 mg kg −1 , whereas in combination with LCAR it increases to 21.8 mg kg −1 . The relative toxicity given as the ratio of the LD50 of both MX alone and the combination of MX-LCAR was 69.7%. The results of our experiments unequivocally show the effect of LCAR on acute toxic doses of MX.