Analysis of Saturated and Unsaturated Phospholipids in Biological Fluids

Abstract

Abstract Cupric acetate (3% in 8% phosphoric acid) as a charring agent reacts only with unsaturated phospholipids while cupric sulfate (10% in 8% phosphoric acid) reacts with both saturated and unsaturated phospholipids. Thus, the amount of saturated phospholipid in a zone on a thin layer chromatogram (TLC) can be calculated by the difference in reactivity. An evaluation of methods shows that direct application of biological samples to TLC for separation and quantitation of phospholipids is reproducible. The use of these techniques for a number of different samples is described.