Localization of Mitochondrial Carnitine/Acylcarnitine Translocase in Sensory Neurons from Rat Dorsal Root Ganglia

The carnitine/acylcarnitine transporter is a
transport system whose function is essential for the mitochondrial
b-oxidation of fatty acids. Here, the presence of
carnitine/acylcarnitine carrier (CACT) in nervous tissue
and its sub-cellular localization in dorsal root ganglia
(DRG) neurons have been investigated. Western blot analysis
using a polyclonal anti-CACT antibody produced in
our laboratory revealed the presence of CACT in all the
nervous tissue extracts analyzed. Confocal microscopy
experiments performed on fixed and permeabilized DRG
neurons co-stained with the anti-CACT antibody and the
mitochondrial marker MitoTracker Red clearly showed a
mitochondrial localization for the carnitine/acylcarnitine
transporter. The transport activity of CACT from DRG
extracts reconstituted into liposomes was about 50 % in
respect to liver extracts. The experimental data here
reported represent the first direct evidence of the expression
of the carnitine/acylcarnitine transporter in sensory
neurons, thus supporting the existence of the b-oxidation
pathway in these cells