Quantitative determination of acyl chain composition of subnanomole amounts of cellular long-chain acyl-coenzyme A esters

A procedure for the quantitative determination of the acyl chain composition of cellular long-chain acyl-CoA esters in subnanomole amounts is described. The abundant cellular lipids of samples are removed by extraction with organic solvents, and the proteins are precipitated from the aqueous phase by the addition of acetonitrile. The CoA thiolesters are adsorbed on neutral aluminum oxide and reduced with sodium borohydride to the corresponding alcohols that are then converted to t-butyldimethylsilyl ethers and analyzed quantitatively by gas chromatography. Saturated and unsaturated acyl chains behaved similarly throughout the procedure, and the common lipid esters do not interfere with the analysis of the CoA esters in the final assay procedure described. This simple and relatively rapid method is suitable for analyzing a large number of samples at a time.