An improved method for tissue long-chain acyl-CoA extraction and analysis.

We report an extensively modified method for the extraction, solid-phase purification, and HPLC analysis of long-chain acyl-CoAs from tissues. Tissue samples were homogenized in a glass homogenizer in KH2PO4 buffer (100 mM, pH 4.9) and again after the addition of 2-propanol. Acyl-CoAs were then extracted from the homogenate with acetonitrile (ACN). The acyl-CoAs in the extract were bound to an oligonucleotide purification column and eluted using 2-propanol. This eluent was concentrated and then loaded onto a C-18 column and eluted using a binary gradient system in which solvent A was KH2PO4 (75 mM, pH 4.9) and solvent B was ACN containing 600 mM glacial acetic acid. Initial flow rate was 0.5 or 0.25 ml/min depending upon the tissue used. The HPLC eluent was monitoring at 260 nm. Our modifications increased the recovery of the extraction procedure to 70-80%, depending upon tissue, with high reproducibility and significantly improved separation of the most common unsaturated and saturated acyl-CoAs. We also report, for the first time, the mass (nanomoles per gram wet weight) of the most common polyunsaturated acyl-CoAs in rat heart, kidney, and muscle tissues. The modifications and high recovery permit the use of tissue samples of less than 100 mg, making this method useful for the analysis of small tissue amounts associated with mice. Copyright 2004 American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Inc.