ANALYSIS OF COMPLEX-MIXTURES OF PHOSPHOLIPID CLASSES FROM CELL-MEMBRANES USING 2-DIMENSIONAL THIN-LAYER CHROMATOGRAPHY AND SCANNING LASER DENSITOMETRY

Increasing recognition of the important roles served by membrane phosp holipids in cellular metabolic and signal transduction processes has s timulated interest in examining potential phospholipid abnormalities i n patients with psychiatric disorders. This report describes a method, based on several novel modifications of existing techniques, for conc urrently analyzing nanomolar amounts of nine phospholipid classes in a single aliquot of membrane extract. With this method, diverse phospho lipid classes are first separated by two-dimensional thin-layer chroma tography, and then determined using two-dimensional scanning laser den sitometry. The method is able to quantitate even small amounts of spec ific phospholipid classes, corresponding to < 10 ng of lipid phosphoru s. The sensitivity of this method allows it to be readily applied to c linical studies involving membranes from cell types that are obtainabl e only in small quantities.