APPLICATIONS OF MASS ISOTOPOMER ANALYSIS TO NUTRITION RESEARCH

Investigations into regulating metabolic pathways with stable isotopes have, over the past decade, undergone major development with the use of nuclear magnetic resonance and mass spectrometry in studying labeli ng patterns of newly synthesized biomolecules. In this review, we conc entrate on investigations of mass isotopomer distribution (MID) measur ed by mass spectrometry. We review the applications of MID to analytic al problems, in particular the possibility of amplifying the measureme nt of low isotopic enrichments by incorporating multiple molecules or atoms of a primary analyte into the molecule of a secondary analyte, t he MID of which is assayed. We also review new information on the regu lation of intermediary metabolism gathered from the analysis of MID pa tterns of synthesized compounds. Lastly, we review the applications of MID to the synthesis of polymeric molecules, with emphasis on the val idity of these techniques. A number of these techniques are applicable to investigations of nutrient metabolism in health and disease.