Simplified, totally enzymatic method for determination of serum triglycerides with a centrifugal analyzer

Abstract

The authors describe a totally enzymatic method for determination of serum triglycerides (triacylglycerols) specifically adaptable to the CentrifiChem system. The method involves lipolysis with lipase from Rhizopus arrhizus alone and quantitation of the resulting glycerol with glycerol dehydrogenase in a kinetic, fixed time mode. Hydrolysis by the lipase is complete, for concentrations up to at least 5.0 g/liter, in 10 min at room temperature. The unfavorable equilibrium for the oxidation of glycerol is overcome by increasing the pH and adding excess NAD+. Under these conditions the glycerol determination is linear to at least 4.0 g of glycerol per liter, as triglyceride. The test exhibits acceptable accuracy and precision, and results correlate well with those by an alternative totally enzymatic procedure. The present method is unaffected by phosphatase and a considerable simplified reagent is used.