Quantifying human vitamin kinetics using AMS
Tracing vitamin kinetics at physiologic concentrations has been hampered by a lack of quantitative sensitivity for chemically equivalent tracers that could be used safely in healthy people. Instead, elderly or ill volunteers were sought for studies involving pharmacologic doses with radioisotopic labels. These studies fail to be relevant in two ways: vitamins are inherently micronutrients, whose biochemical paths are saturated and distorted by pharmacological doses; and while vitamins remain important for health in the elderly or ill, their greatest effects may be in preventing slow and cumulative diseases by proper consumption throughout youth and adulthood. Neither the target dose nor the target population are available for nutrient metabolic studies through decay counting of radioisotopes at high levels. Stable isotopic labels are quantified by isotope ratio mass spectrometry at levels that trace physiologic vitamin doses, but the natural background of stable isotopes severely limits the time span over which the tracer is distinguishable. Indeed, study periods seldom ranged over a single biological mean life of the labeled nutrients, failing to provide data on the important final elimination phase of the compound. Kinetic data for the absorption phase is similarly rare in micronutrient research because the phase is rapid, requiring many consecutive plasma samples for accurate representation. However, repeated blood samples of sufficient volume for precise stable or radio-isotope quantitations consume an indefensible amount of the volunteer's blood over a short period. Thus, vitamin pharmacokinetics in humans has often relied on compartmental modeling based upon assumptions and tested only for the short period of maximal blood circulation, a period that poorly reflects absorption or final elimination kinetics except for the most simple models.
- Research Organization:
- Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE
- DOE Contract Number:
- W-7405-ENG-48
- OSTI ID:
- 15013949
- Report Number(s):
- UCRL-CONF-202463; TRN: US200803%%1033
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: Presented at: Synthesis and Applications of Isotopically Labeled Compounds, Boston , MA, United States, Jun 01 - Jun 05, 2003
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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