On the levels of alkyl and alk‐1‐enyl glycerolipids in normal and neoplastic tissues: A method of quantification

A method is described for the quantification of the constituentO‐alkyl andO‐alk‐1‐enyl glycerols of neutral lipids or phospholipids. The method involves chemical degradation, the preparation of derivatives, and quantification by gas chromatography using internal standards. Alk‐1‐enyl moieties are converted to alkyl substituted dioxanes in the presence of 1,1‐dimethoxyheptadecane as standard; alkyl glycerols are analyzed as isopropylidene derivatives using 1‐O‐heptadecyl glycerol as internal standard. The method is applied to the quantification of alkyl and alk‐1‐enyl glycerols derived from total lipids of rat heart, liver, testes, and brain and of various transplantable tumors, i.e. amelanotic melanoma, melanoma B16, sarcoma T241, and Novikoff hepatoma. The levels of alkyl glycerols range from 0.11–1.07% total lipids and those of alk‐1‐enyl glycerols from 0.49–5.03%. The data are compared to those obtained by other methods.