L-Carnitine is a common food supplement and naturally occurs in red meat. This nutrient is metabolized into trimethyl metabolites by the gut microbiota and is associated with an elevated risk for cardiovascular disease. A recent study provides new insights into this link by exploring how the gut microbiota generates proatherogenic metabolites from L-carnitine and how the microbiota is altered in response to an omnivorous diet (pages 576–585).
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F.B. is cofounder of and a shareholder in MetaboGen AB.
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Bäckhed, F. Meat-metabolizing bacteria in atherosclerosis. Nat Med 19, 533–534 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/nm.3178
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nm.3178
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