Involvement of adenosine in vanadate-stimulated release of lipoprotein lipase activity

A short-term incubation of isolated rat fat pads with vanadate showed the stimulated release of lipoprotein lipase (LPL) activity and suppression of the rise in extracellular adenosine level. The addition of adenosine to the medium showed inhibition of both the stimulated release of LPL activity and an increase in intracellular cAMP content by vanadate. A progressive increase in 5'-nucleotidase activity in the particulate fraction containing plasma membrane was suppressed by vanadate in a time- and dose-dependent manner, suggesting that vanadate inhibits, in part, the production of adenosine based on a dephosphorylation of AMP. In adipocytes, the inhibition of adenylate cyclase via A1 adenosine receptor is more predominant than the stimulation of adenylate cyclase via A2 adenosine receptor (Londos C. et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A., 75, 5362-5366 (1978)). Therefore, vanadate may stimulate the release of LPL activity from the fat pads by suppressing the rise in extracellular adenosine level, accompanied by the activation of adenylate cyclase activity.

New analyser for the determination of urinary vanillylmandelic acid, homovanillic acid and creatinine

We have developed a novel analyser for the determination of vanillylmandelic acid, homovanillic acid and creatinine in urine by high-performance liquid chromatography using three different types of column, cation-exchange, anion-exchange and reversed-phase and the column-switching technique. In this procedure, 10 microliters of intact urine were directly injected into the cation-exchange column, and the pass-through fraction, containing vanillylmandelic acid and homovanillic acid was transferred to the anion-exchange column by column switching. The fraction partially purified from endogenous urinary impurities on the anion-exchange column was transferred to the reversed-phase column. Vanillylmandelic acid and homovanillic acid, separated by the solvent-switching technique, were detected fluorimetrically (excitation at 280 nm, emission at 320 nm). Then, creatinine eluted from the cation-exchange column is spectrophotometrically detected (254 nm). Therefore the successive simultaneous analysis of the three could be performed in a 15-min cycle; the within-assay coefficients of variation for normal and patients' urines were less than 1.9%, less than 3.3% and less than 3.0% for vanillylmandelic acid, homovanillic acid and creatinine, respectively; the recoveries averaged 100, 103 and 100%, respectively, for supplemented urines.