A simple, rapid and semi-automated method for the quantitative determination of expired 14CO2 in metabolism studies with laboratory animals.
The automatic features of a commercial instrument which prepares 14CO2 for liquid scintillation counting have been adapted  to assay the 14CO2 collected in aqueous NaOH from the expired air of experimental laboratory animals in metabolism experiments. The method involves the liberation of 14CO2 trapped as Na214CO3 with dilute H2SO4 and the entrainment of the 14CO2 with nitrogen into the sample handling system. Recoveries were 87.3+/-1.2% and precision+/-2.0%. The method was simple and rapid; 6-8 samples were processed in one hour.
D000818:Animals; D001944:Breath Tests / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D002245:Carbon Dioxide / Q000032:analysis* / Q000378:metabolism; D000431:Ethanol / Q000378:metabolism; D010084:Oxidation-Reduction; D051381:Rats
D002245:Carbon Dioxide; D000431:Ethanol