Isolation of a pure glycerol-14C derivative for measurement of glycerol turnover.

Abstract

Glycerol turnover has been measured during constant infusion of glycerol-14c in normal dogs. Plasma glycerol was isolated and assayed for radioactivity as glycerol tribenzoate. It was found that 14c of the infused glycerol was rapidly incorporated into extraneous plasma constituents, with plasma glucose representing the major pool of nonglycerol-14C. Further, it was shown that this glucose-14c in plasma filtrates contaminates tribenzoate derivatives, causing serious error in measurement of glycerol turnover. A method has been developed which rein oves glucose and other aldoses from plasma filtrates and thus allows the calculation of true plasma glycerol specific activity from isolated glycerol tribenzoate derivatives.