Assay of adenosine in human adipose tissue

A method is described to assay the adenosine content of human adipose tissue. Tissue pieces of 10-20 mg were frozen within 1 sec of excision by a conchotome. The pieces were pooled and ground in liquid nitrogen, divided into samples weighing 50-100 mg each and placed in perchloric acid. Neutralized defatted extracts were treated by Dowex AG-1 to remove nucleotides and lyophilized. The adenosine content was measured by RIA using antiserum raised against laevulinic acid (0(2'),3'-adenosine-acetal)-albumin conjugate. The adenosine content in human abdominal sc adipose tissue was 0.56 +/- 0.08 nmol/g of tissue (mean +/- SEM). This shows that adenosine is present in human adipose tissue at concentrations that have been shown to have regulatory effects on cAMP accumulation and lipolysis.