Micro-determinations of alpha-tocopherol in tissue lipids.

It has been shown that the determination of small amounts of tocopheral in tissue lipids by methods that use, in sequence, saponification, extraction, TLC and colorimetric assay, is greatly influenced by the concentration of soap in the saponification mixture. Soaps appear to interfere with the recovery of tocopherols during the subsequent extraction step. Based on this knowledge a method is described that was used to measure as little as 15 to 20 ng of tocopherol in 3 to 4 mg of lipid obtained from rat retinas. Presumably the method would be applicable to other tissues as well. The results show that the rat retina is readily depleted of tocopherol if none is included in the diet.     

Self-mutilation and sleep stage in the Lesch-Nyhan syndrome.

Correlation of self-mutilation and sleep stage in the Lesch-Nyhan syndrome was studied by a polygraphic method. Five patients and three control boys were monitored with EEG, EOG, EMG, ECG and respiration throughout the night. The results were as follows: 1. The sleep-time of the patients was much disturbed during the night. 2. Decreased REM density was noticed with low DQ of the patients. 3. Self-mutilation during sleep-time was observed a lot in stages 1, 2, and REM in two cases. 4. No correlation was observed between body movement and self-mutilation in the Lesch-Nyhan syndrome. These data suggested functional disorders of the frontal lobe in the patients.