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Craft Technologies, Inc., Wilson, NC 27893
2To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: hfurr{at}crafttechnologies.com.
| ABSTRACT |
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KEY WORDS: retinoids carotenoids vitamin A analysis
Progress in nutritional sciences, perhaps more so than in most other sciences, depends on advances in analytical techniques. Space does not allow this paper to provide detailed information on appropriate analytical tools and methods, but it reviews the methods traditionally used for vitamin A and carotenoid analysis and provides references for fuller descriptions of these procedures.
Biological assays
The discovery of the vitamins depended on biological assays (1,2), as did their subsequent isolation. The rat growth assay (Fig. 1) provided the means by which McCollum and Davis (3) and Osborn and Mendel demonstrated the nutritional need for a fat-soluble growth factor, soon called "fat soluble A" and later named "vitamin A." Before the determination of the chemical structure and physical properties of retinol and retinyl esters, animal growth assays [described in detail by Bliss and Roels (4)] necessarily were the only means of determining the vitamin A content of foodstuffs and tissues. The discovery of the visual function of vitamin A is another example of a specialized type of biological assay (5). Later, the finding that retinoic acid is an active metabolite of vitamin A also depended on growth assays (6). In some sense, the recognition of the nuclear receptor proteins (RAR, RXR, PPAR, LXR) also depended on a new type of biological assay.
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However, the identification of the carotenoids followed a different path in that their chemical isolation and characterization preceded any conjecture as to their biological functions in animals. Their highly visible color (orange to red) prompted early interest in their isolation and characterization, for example the isolation of bixin from Bixa orellana reported by Boussingault in 1825 (7) and the isolation of ß-carotene from carrot root by Wachenroder in 1826 [cited by Palmer (8)]. Early procedures for isolation and characterization of carotenoid studies were reviewed in a delightful monograph by Palmer published in 1922 (8). In fact, the study of carotenoids led to the development of a new and eventually extremely powerful analytical technique. Mikhail Tswett, a botanist studying plant pigments, found that plant pigments could be separated into a variety of individual colored zones on columns of powdered calcium carbonate, inulin, or sucrose in glass tubes; he named this new technique "chromatography" ("writing with color") and described its application in a series of papers (9). Chromatography allowed the discrimination of xanthophylls (oxygen-containing carotenoids, such as lutein and zeaxanthin) from carotenes (hydrocarbon carotenoids, including lycopene,
-carotene and ß-carotene) and provided separations within classes. Alumina and silica became the preferred stationary phases for reproducible separations, with mixtures of organic solvents as mobile phases. This separation technique, adsorption chromatography, in time was applied to many other compounds, including retinol and retinyl esters.
Although planar chromatographic techniques (both paper chromatography and thin layer chromatography on silica-coated plates) were applied for analysis of many compounds, these techniques have never been used extensively for analysis of carotenoids and retinoids. Gas chromatography also was little used for analysis of carotenoids and retinoids because of their thermal instability and limited volatility. As a special application, however, gas chromatography coupled with detection by mass spectroscopy (GC-MS) has proven uniquely valuable in determining isotope ratios for isotope-dilution analysis of vitamin A status. Combustion of 13C-carotenoids and retinoids combined with gas chromatography-mass spectrometry of the resulting 13CO2 (isotope ratio-gas chromatography-mass spectrometry, IR-GC-MS) has proven to be extremely sensitive and precise for analysis of isotope ratios in tracer experiments (10).
The advent of HPLC in the early 1970s, with much enhanced resolution provided by very small stationary phase particle sizes and the reproducibility provided by commercially produced stationary phases, revolutionized retinoid and carotenoid studies. This technique opened a new era in studies of the tissue distribution and metabolism of retinoids and carotenoids. Retinoids and carotenoids in small volume extracts of biological tissues (either plant or animal) could now be analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively in a short time (11,12) (example chromatograms from contemporary practice are shown in Figs. 2and 3). The sensitivity of this technique opened new opportunities for tissue analysis; limits of detection of retinol and other retinoids by absorbance detection on HPLC are typically 0.35 pmol (0.1 ng). Most retinoid and carotenoid analyses have been performed by partition chromatography ("reversed-phase HPLC") on octadecylsilane (C18) columns, but within the past several years C30 columns have proven useful for certain demanding separations of carotenoids (13). The most commonly used detectors are UV and visible light absorbance detectors (both single-wavelength and photodiode-array detectors), although fluorescence detectors (retinol and retinyl esters are fluorescent, other retinoids and most carotenoids are not), refractive index detectors, electrochemical detectors, and mass spectrometers have also been used. Recent detailed reviews of HPLC of retinoids and carotenoids (and sample preparation techniques) include those of Britton et al. (14), Barua and Furr (15), Eitenmiller and Landen (16), Barua et al. (17) and Song et al. (18).
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Spectrometry
Carotenoids and retinoids absorb light particularly well because of their conjugated polyene systems, with light absorption in regions of the visible or ultraviolet spectrum where few other biological compounds absorb (i.e., around 450 nm for carotenoids and around 325380 nm for retinoids) and with particularly high molar extinction coefficients (absorbance spectra of some retinoids and carotenoids are shown in Fig. 4). Absorbance spectroscopy has become a major tool for quantitation of retinoids and carotenoids, either of pure solutions or of biological extracts. The Bessey-Lowry procedure was used earlier for analysis of retinol in blood plasma and liver extracts (20). Currently, absorbance detectors have become the standard means for quantitative analysis of retinoids and carotenoids in HPLC, and photodiode-array detectors (which can display the complete light absorption spectrum of an eluting peak) have become important tools for qualitative analysis and identification in HPLC. Useful tables of light absorbances (wavelengths of maximum absorption, and molar extinction coefficients) have been compiled for carotenoids (21) and retinoids (17,22,23).
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Fluorescence spectroscopy offers greater specificity than absorbance spectroscopy (because two wavelengths, excitation and emission, can be selected) for analysis of retinol and retinyl esters in biological samples (26,27). Retinol and retinyl esters are intensely fluorescent, but retinal and retinoic acid (and most synthetic retinoids) are not; of the common carotenoids only phytofluene shows appreciable fluorescence, and fluorescence spectroscopy is not heavily used for routine retinoid and carotenoid analysis.
Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectrometry is important for structural determination of organic compounds, and it is particularly useful for assignment of cis and trans isomers. It has found little other use in retinoid and carotenoid analysis, however. Similarly, infrared spectroscopy (IR) has had some use in structural analysis but has not been as important as UV and visible light spectroscopy (2830). Coupling analytical techniques, for example HPLC with NMR and mass spectroscopy, HPLC-NMR-MS (31), provides greatly enhanced sophistication in separation, identification, and quantitation.
Methods useful for analysis of retinoid-binding proteins, and other techniques
Retinol-binding protein (RBP) can be quantitated in small volumes of blood serum or plasma (5 to 20 µL) by radial immunodiffusion, providing an inexpensive means of assessing vitamin A status in the field which requires no sophisticated equipment. The disadvantage, of course, is that the analyte measured is RBP, not retinol itself; however, in many situations the concentrations of retinol and RBP are closely correlated. Concentrations of retinoid nuclear receptor proteins are routinely assessed by immunoprecipitation techniques (Western blots).
The fluorescence of retinol itself makes it a useful tag for analysis of retinol-binding proteins, including plasma RBP. A portable fluorometer has been adapted for measurement of human plasma retinol-RBP concentrations in field studies (32). Capillary electrophoresis of retinol-RBP requires <10 nL of of serum or plasma for quantitative analysis using laser-excited fluorescence detection and can be adapted to analysis of retinol-RBP in dried blood spots (33). Similarly, retinol fluorescence can be used for sensitive quantitation of retinol-RBP separated by size-exclusion HPLC (34,35).
Immunological techniques are of limited use for binding and analysis of retinoids themselves (36,37). Although this approach has not demonstrated high specificity for individual retinoids, it may still have unrealized potential for localization of retinoids in tissues slices by immunohistochemistry (coupled antibody techniques).
Current techniques of retinoid and carotenoid analysis
Analysis of retinoids and carotenoids may now be considered a relatively mature field. Although specific challenges remain, there is a corpus of accepted techniques for extraction of these compounds from biological samples and for their qualitative and quantitative analysis. A number of reviews are available, of which the recent series Carotenoids (edited by Britton, Liaaen-Jensen and Pfander) is especially useful (14,38). Recent reviews that include specific instructions for extraction and analysis procedures were provided by Barua and Furr (15,23), Napoli and Horst (39), Eitenmiller and Landen (16), Barua et al. (17) and Song et al. (18).
Contemporary challenges and new approaches
A continuing problem in retinoids and carotenoids research is the lack of standard compounds for testing biological activity in various systems and for use as analytical standards. In the past a variety of compounds has been available from sources in the vitamins industry, at little or no cost, and the academic research community has been heavily indebted to colleagues in industry. With changes in commercial perspectives and interests, these compounds are less available. Alternative sources of a wide variety of compounds will have to be found in order for research to progress.
The current appreciation of the crucial roles of retinoic acid (all-trans and 9-cis isomers) in control of gene expression, and the possibility that carotenoids also may be involved in control of gene expression, demand more sensitive and selective methods for analysis of these compounds in biological tissues and cell cultures. The likelihood that retinoid metabolism (oxidation of retinol to retinoic acid, isomerization of all-trans retinoids to 9-cis retinoids, and possibly 4-hydroxylation/oxidation) plays an indirect role in control of gene expression increases the importance of measuring tissue concentrations of these vitamin A metabolites. Although HPLC has been an invaluable technique for retinoid analysis, perhaps new methods such as capillary electrophoresis will be required to provide adequate levels of sensitivity. Rapid methods for extraction and resolution of stereoisomers that obviate any problems of isomerization during processing are needed not only for studies of retinoids (and carotenoids) in molecular biology, but also in vision research. Improved lower limits of detection continue to be important for helping elucidate metabolism of these compounds.
Looking ahead, I am particularly impressed by the greatly enhanced sensitivity of accelerator mass spectrometry for analysis of ultra-low tracer quantities of 14C-retinoids and carotenoids (40). This technique allows examination of vitamin A and carotenoid kinetics with truly physiologically low doses of tracer. Noting the sensitivity of expression of a variety of genes to retinoids, I suggest that measurement of the levels of expression of specific target genes could serve as a sensitive indicator of functional vitamin A status.
Assessment of vitamin A status is a continuing problem in human nutrition. Development of analytical techniques has contributed to the variety of methods for assessment of vitamin A status currently available, but there is still need for simple, rugged and inexpensive methods.
Looking back over the past century, it is clear that our understanding of retinoid and carotenoid function and metabolism has depended on the analytical techniques available. Meeting the next set of experimental challenges will depend on resolution of the next set of analytical problems.
| FOOTNOTES |
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3 Abbreviations used: GC, gas chromatography; GC-MS, gas chromatography-mass spectroscopy; HPLC-NMR-MS, HPLC-nuclear magnetic resonance-mass spectroscopy; IR, infrared spectroscopy; IR-GC-MS, isotope ratio-gas chromatography-mass spectroscopy; NMR, nuclear magnetic resonance; RBP, retinol-binding protein. ![]()
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