• G L Weinberg, J W Palmer, T R VadeBoncouer, M B Zuechner, G Edelman, and C L Hoppel.
• Department of Anesthesiology, University of Illinois College of Medicine at Chicago, 60612, USA. guyw@uic.edu
• Anesthesiology. 2000 Feb 1; 92 (2): 523-8.

BackgroundThe authors previously reported that secondary carnitine deficiency may sensitize the heart to bupivacaine-induced arrhythmias. In this study, the authors tested whether bupivacaine inhibits carnitine metabolism in cardiac mitochondria.MethodsRat cardiac interfibrillar mitochondria were prepared using a differential centrifugation technique. Rates of adenosine diphosphate-stimulated (state III) and adenosine diphosphate-limited (state IV) oxygen consumption were measured using a Clark electrode, using lipid or nonlipid substrates with varying concentrations of a local anesthetic.ResultsState III respiration supported by the nonlipid substrate pyruvate (plus malate) is minimally affected by bupivacaine concentrations up to 2 mM. Lower concentrations of bupivacaine inhibited respiration when the available substrates were palmitoylcarnitine or acetylcarnitine; bupivacaine concentration causing 50% reduction in respiration (IC50 +/- SD) was 0.78+/-0.17 mM and 0.37+/-0.03 mM for palmitoylcarnitine and acetylcarnitine, respectively. Respiration was equally inhibited by bupivacaine when the substrates were palmitoylcarnitine alone, or palmitoyl-CoA plus carnitine. Bupivacaine (IC50 = 0.26+/-0.06 mM) and etidocaine (IC50 = 0.30+/-0.12 mM) inhibit carnitine-stimulated pyruvate oxidation similarly, whereas the lidocaine IC50 is greater by a factor of roughly 5, (IC50 = 1.4+/-0.26 mM), and ropivacaine is intermediate, IC50 = 0.5+/-0.28 mM.ConclusionsBupivacaine inhibits mitochondrial state III respiration when acylcarnitines are the available substrate. The substrate specificity of this effect rules out bupivacaine inhibition of carnitine palmitoyl transferases I and II, carnitine acetyltransferase, and fatty acid beta-oxidation. The authors hypothesize that differential inhibition of carnitine-stimulated pyruvate oxidation by various local anesthetics supports the clinical relevance of inhibition of carnitine-acylcarnitine translocase by local anesthetics with a cardiotoxic profile.

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