Capillary electrophoretic measurement of tissue metabolites. Dillon, Patrick F., and Patrick R. Sears. Department of Physiology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824. Telephone: 517-337-7947, Fax: 517-355-5125, e-mail: dillon@psl.msu.edu
APStracts 4:0326C, 1997.
A method for the measurement of tissue metabolites from rabbit urinary bladder using capillary eletrophoresis (CE) has been developed. The method generates a reproducible electropherogram containing more than twenty peaks, including NAD, NADH, lactate, UDP-glucose, phosphocreatine, creatine, ATP, ADP, GTP and UTP, from less than 20 nanoliters of extract solution generated from 1.1 nl (or approximately 1.2 micrograms) of tissue in less than 40 minutes. Multiple samples from the same bladder produce standard errors comparable to enzymatic or NMR measurements of metabolites: phosphorus NMR measurement requires 106 more tissue than CE; individual enzymatic measurements using 100 SYMBOL 109 \f l per sample require 2000 l, 105 greater volume than CE requires for the same number of metabolites. CE detects about 3 times more peaks than phosphorus NMR on a similar time scale. Comparable measurements using enzymatic analysis would require approximately 10 times longer. The combination of minimal tissue volume requirements, rapid measurement, and reproducibility makes CE a valuable tool in the investigation of simultaneous changes in multiple metabolites from minute tissue samples.

Received 8 September 1997; accepted in final form 3 November
1997.
APS Manuscript Number C460-7.
Article publication pending Am. J. Physiol. (Cell Physiology).
ISSN 1080-4757 Copyright 1997 The American Physiological Society.
Published in APStracts on 14 November 1997