Determination of the phospholipid composition of trout gill by Iatroscan TLC/FID: effect of thermal acclimation.

The phospholipid composition of gill tissue from thermally acclimated rainbow trout, Salmo gairdneri, was determined by Iatroscan analysis following an initial development of the chromarods in a non-polar solvent to remove neutral lipids. Standard curves for all phospholipids, although linear through most of the concentration range tested (1-40 micrograms), extrapolated to negative intercepts on the ordinate, indicating a decline in sensitivity at low phospholipid levels. In addition, the concentration dependence of the Iatroscan response varied by nearly 6-fold among phospholipids. Of the major phospholipids, only lysophosphatidylcholine could not be quantitated accurately because of the presence of an interfering peak. Quantitation by Iatroscan yielded results which, in general, agreed well (within 5%) with results obtained by an independent phosphate analysis. Only in the case of phosphatidylinositol (PI) did the two analytical methods differ significantly; proportions of PI were 55% higher when determined by Iatroscan as opposed to phosphate analysis. Gill tissue from 5 C-acclimated trout possessed higher proportions of phosphatidylethanolamine than tissue from 20 C-acclimated trout. The Iatroscan provided a rapid and reliable means of quantitating the proportions of all the major phospholipids of trout gill, although there are some limitations to the general applicability of the technique.