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The determination of amino acid pool sizes and turnover rates by gas chromatographic mass spectrometric analysis of stable isotope enrichment
Author(s) -
Irving Charles S.,
Nissim Itzhak,
Lapidot Aviva
Publication year - 1978
Publication title -
biomedical mass spectrometry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.475
H-Index - 121
eISSN - 1096-9888
pISSN - 0306-042X
DOI - 10.1002/bms.1200050204
Subject(s) - chemistry , isotope , glycine , mass spectrometry , chromatography , stable isotope ratio , gas chromatography , amino acid , gas chromatography–mass spectrometry , radiochemistry , metabolism , biochemistry , physics , quantum mechanics
Gas chromatography mass spectrometry has been used to determine the 15 N enrichment of plasma glycine of rabbits at various times following the intravenous administration of 15 N‐glycine. These data were used to prepare isotope enrichment time decay curves for eleven individual animals. The slopes and intercepts of least squares lines that describe the decay curves were considerably more accurate than those reported in similar studies employing radioactive tracers. Individual glycine pool sizes (13.8–37.4 μmoles per 100 g body wt), turnovers rates (2.66–3.36 pools h −1 )and flux (50.4–99.7 μmoles h −1 per 100 g body wt) were estimated from these parameters in a group of animals and compared with the literature values. These results demonstrate that low risk non‐radioactive stable isotopes can be substituted for radioactive tracers in studies of human amino acid metabolism, with considerable saving in time and without loss in accuracy, when gas chromatography mass spectrometry is used to determine plasma amino acid and stable isotope enrichment.