Reagent for the enzymatic determination of serum total triglycerides with improved lipolytic efficiency.

A fully enzymatic assay is described for the determination of triglycerides. The coupled activities of triacylglycerol acylhydrolase and glycerol kinase result in the formation of glycerol-3-phosphate. The system also contains L-alpha-glycerol-phosphate oxidase, which produces hydrogen peroxide from glycerol-3-phosphate, and a sensitive chromogenic indicator system, consisting of peroxidase, 4-chlorophenol and 4-aminophenazone. We evaluated this method with respect to kinetics, linearity, blank rates, precision, accuracy, reagent stability and interfering substances. The accuracy of the triglyceride assay demands that each enzymatic reaction step be complete and homogeneous. We therefore developed HPTLC-1) and HPLC-2) methods to monitor the course and completeness of each step.

Quantification of high-density-lipoprotein cholesterol by precipitation with phosphotungstic acid/MgCl2.

We evaluated the use of a modified phosphotungstic acid/MgCl2 precipitation procedure for the precipitation of apolipoprotein B-containing lipoproteins. Precipitation of these lipoproteins [very-low- and low-density lipoproteins, and lipoprotein (a)] is complete, with negligible coprecipitation of high-density lipoprotein subfractions (HDL1, HDL2, HDL3), even in hypertriglyceridemic sera. In comparison with ultracentrifugation, the precipitation method yields, on the average, values that are 0.17 mmol/L lower for cholesterol values but almost identical for apolipoprotein A-I and phosphatidylcholine. Looking for delta 3,5-cholestadiene formed from cholesterol in the precipitation residue, we used "high-performance" liquid chromatography and "high-performance" thin-layer chromatography and found none.

Reagent for the enzymatic determination of serum total cholesterol with improved lipolytic efficiency.

We describe a sensitive method for quantifying the extent of cholesterol ester cleavage during enzymatic assay of total cholesterol in serum. Lipids are extracted from the assay mixture with chloroform/methanol (1/1 by vol), concentrated, then quantified by "high-performance" thin-layer chromatography. Although with conventional enzymatic reagents for determination of serum total cholesterol the hydrolysis of the cholesterol esters may be incomplete, a new enzymatic cholesterol reagent (Monotest Cholesterol, High Performance, Boehringer Mannheim) gives virtually complete cholesterol ester cleavage (i.e., greater than or equal to 99.5%). Use of this reagent with its improved lipolytic efficiency yields results for serum total cholesterol that are identical to those measured with a candidate reference procedure involving alkaline cholesterol ester saponification.

Mechanism of action of human pancreatic and salivary alpha-amylase on alpha-4-nitrophenyl maltoheptaoside substrate.

We evaluated the enzymic mechanism by which alpha-4-nitrophenyl maltoheptaoside serves as a substrate for serum amylase (EC 3.2.1.1). Because polymeric substrates possess many potential sites of cleavage, the expression of enzymic activity as the number of micromoles of substrate transformed under defined conditions by an enzyme must be changed to "one microequivalent of group transformed." Therefore, we measured the activity of the isoenzymes of alpha-amylase with regard to suitable oligosaccharide substrates, which allowed us to express the catalytic activity in IUB units (U). By "high-performance" liquid chromatography we investigated the mechanism of human pancreatic and salivary alpha-amylase action, both alone and in combination with alpha-glucosidase (EC 3.2.1.20). On the basis of these results, we can describe exactly the entire reaction sequence and determine the stoichiometric coefficient of 4-nitrophenol within 0.02 mol/L (SD) produced under the assay conditions.