Monosodium Glutamate Toxicity and the Possible Protective Role of L–Carnitine

Abstract

Monosodium glutamate is naturally available non-essential amino acids, which found in naturally occurring foods and used as flavour enhancer worldwide. Monosodium glutamate is believed to be linked with diverse health problems. The aim of the study was toxic effects of monosodium glutamate (MSG) and the protective role of L-carnitine, light on the available literature from last 25 years about diverse toxicity studies which had been carried out on animal and human models. Google scholar, NCBI, PUBMED, EMBASE, Wangfang databases, and Web of Science databases were used to retrieve the available studies. MSG was linked with deleterious effects particularly in animals including induction of obesity, diabetes, hepatotoxic, neurotoxic and genotoxic effects showed in Literature. Few reports revealed increased hunger, food intake, and obesity in human subjects due to MSG consumption. Hepatotoxic, neurotoxic, and genotoxic effects of monosodium glutamate on humans carried out very limitedly. High consumption of monosodium glutamate may be linked with harmful health effects showed in available literatures. So, it is recommended to use common salt instead of MSG. Furthermore, intensive research is required to explore monosodium glutamate–related molecular and metabolic mechanisms. L-carnitine can protect from Hepatotoxic, neurotoxic, renal impairment and genotoxic effects functionally, biochemically and histopathologically with a corresponding reduction of oxidative stress.

Ketogenic diet improves and restores redox status and biochemical indices in monosodium glutamate-induced rat testicular toxicity

“…Antioxidants facilitate defense mechanism against oxidation of biomolecules such as lipid, nucleic acids and protein. Redox status of the cells can be measured using antioxidant enzymes (CAT, SOD and GSH) and the lipid peroxidation end product, MDA [4]. SOD mops up cellular superoxide anion and hinders the peroxidation of membrane lipid.…”

“…Fernandes et al [3] reported that administration of MSG at 4.0 mg/g for 120 days exhibited testicular, prostatic and epididymis dysfunction. MSG triggers hemorrhage in the testis, deterioration of sperm production and cell structure which ultimately results in male infertility [4].…”

“…MSG is a major component of many proteins such as milk, meat, fish, and some vegetables. It has a daily consumption rate of 300-4000 mg/day in developed countries [4]. Repeated consumption of MSG has been linked with many deleterious effects in animals and human studies [6].…”

“…Some adverse effects of MSG include genotoxicity, hepatotoxicity, renal and reproductive toxicity. Neurotoxic effects induced by MSG caused pathological conditions such as Parkinson's diseases, depression, stroke, anxiety, addiction, Alzheimer's disease, brain trauma, and epilepsy [4,5].…”

The interplay between monosodium glutamate (MSG) consumption and metabolic disorders

“…Excitatory amino acid carrier 1 (EAAC1) (intestine), glutamate/aspartate transporter 1 (GLAST1), and glutamate transport (GLT1) (stomach), respectively, are the primary glutamate and glutamine active transporters. These transporters are reliant on sodium ions and are competitively blockable [ 8 ]. Glutamate can be transformed into free amino acids in the gut, where they can subsequently be further metabolized [ 9 ].…”