Fluorometric determination of total retinyl esters in triglyceride-rich lipoproteins

A time-consuming sample preparation and measuring procedure is required for the quantitation of retinyl palmitate by HPLC. We developed a fluorometric method for the determination of total retinyl esters in chylomicrons, chylomicron remnants, and VLDL. This method is precise, sensitive, rapid, simple, and particularly useful for large-scale studies of postprandial lipid metabolism. Because the turbidity of postprandial lipemic samples interferes with the fluorescence measurement, all samples were incubated for 10 min with a clearing buffer containing esterase and detergents. This buffer eliminates the turbidity and hydrolyzes all retinyl esters to retinol. The fluorescence signal (excitation wavelength, 330 nm; emission wavelength, 490 nm) was linear from 0.1 mg/L up to 4 mg/L retinyl palmitate, and the CVs were 3.6% within-run and 5.1% within-series. A first application studied postprandial lipoproteins, which were first separated by ultracentrifugation and then subjected to size exclusion chromatography. Fluorescence analysis revealed that the chylomicron density fraction contains large amounts of chylomicron remnants.