Journal of Lipid Research, Vol 30, 454-457, Copyright © 1989 by Lipid Research, Inc.
Quantitative analysis of retinal glycerolipid molecular species acetylated by acetolysis
HG Choe, RD Wiegand and RE Anderson
Program in Neuroscience, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX 77030.
A method for the quantitative analysis of molecular species of 1,2-
diacylglycerol acetates (1,2-DGAC) containing polyunsaturated fatty acids
is described. Phosphatidylethanolamine (PE) isolated from frog retina was
used to test the method. PE was converted to 1,2-DGAC by acetolysis. The
molecular species of the 1,2-DGAC were resolved by reverse-phase high
performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), detected by UV absorption
spectroscopy at 210 nm, and identified by gas-liquid chromatography (GLC)
of the fatty acid methyl esters (FAME). Molar response curves were
generated for each DGAC molecular species that eluted as a single entity
from HPLC by determining the moles of fatty acids in the molecular species
collected and the response (peak area unit) of the UV detector. Each
molecular species response curve was linear from about 10 pmoles to 4-8
nmoles, allowing the slope of each curve to be used as a molar
absorptivity. This method provides a means for quantification of most of
the molecular species of all glycerolipid classes.