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Title: MEASUREMENTS OF THE MAJOR ISOFORMS OF VITAMINS A, E AND THE CAROTENOIDS IN HUMAN BLOOD OF PEOPLE WITH SPINAL CORD INJURIES

Author
item Burri, Betty
item Neidlinger, Terry
item DOPLER-NELSON, MINDY - UNIV OF CALIF DAVIS

Submitted to: Journal of Chromatography
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 2/14/2003
Publication Date: 2/14/2003
Citation: Burri, B.J., Neidlinger, T.R., Dopler-Nelson, M. 2003. MEASUREMENTS OF THE MAJOR ISOFORMS OF VITAMINS A, E AND THE CAROTENOIDS IN HUMAN BLOOD OF PEOPLE WITH SPINAL CORD INJURIES. Journal of Chromatography. 987 (1-2): 359-366, 2003.

Interpretive Summary: Health workers and scientists often need to measure several nutrients in one patient. Usually it is quicker and easier to measure these nutrients simultaneously by the same method, than to use several different measurement methods on the same person. However, methods that measure several nutrients at once are usually complex and unstable. We modified a method that simultaneously measures several important nutrients (vitamins A, E, beta-carotene, alpha-carotene, lycopene. lutein), and also vitamin D in some patients, to improve its stability and accuracy. We used this new method to measure vitamins and nutrients in people with spinal cord injuries, and found it was faster, simpler, and gave somewhat more accurate results than our previous method. We describe this improved method for measuring vitamin A, vitamin E, beta-carotene, alpha-carotene, lutein, lycopene, zeaxanthin, cryptoxanthin, and cis beta-carotene simultaneously in one blood sample.

Technical Abstract: We used reversed-phase HPLC with diode array detection to simultaneously measure the major isoforms of vitamins A, E, and the carotenoids in serum from people with spinal cord injuries. Typically, the method measured retinol (vitamin A), alpha-tocopherol (vitamin E) and beta-carotene, alpha-carotene, lutein, lycopene, and cryptoxanthin (carotenoids). Gamma-tocopherol (vitamin E), 25 hydroxy-calciferol (vitamin D), and the carotenoids zeaxanthin and cis-beta-carotene could also be measured when they were present in high concentrations. Healthy people with spinal cord injuries were more likely than healthy people without injuries to have low concentrations of alpha-tocopherol, retinol, and 25-hydroxy-calciferol.