Enzymic measurement of urinary pyrophosphate with a centrifugal analyzer

We describe a simple, rapid, and fully automated technique for measuring urinary pyrophosphates with a centrifugal analyzer (the ENI GEMSAEC). This technique depends on the enzymic magnesium-dependent reaction with UDPG pyrophosphorylase (UTP: alpha-D-glucose-1-phosphate uridylyl transferase, EC 2.7.7.9) and spectrophotometry of the NADPH formed in a combined system of phosphorylation and reduction. Many samples of urine can be analyzed quickly without pretreatment, with high sensitivity (1.3 mA/mumol of substrate) and good reproducibility. The mean within-run coefficient of variation for a 50 mumol/L pyrophosphate solution was 1.4%. We determined the optimum enzyme and magnesium concentrations necessary for use in a 4-min reaction. Because there is no inhibitory effect of chloride and phosphate ions, pyrophosphate can be measured directly in urine, without prior extraction. With this technique, the mean value (and SD) for urinary pyrophosphate excretion by 30 healthy subjects was 39.3 (SD 17.2) mumol/24 h.