title: Urinary excretion of alpha- and beta-isomers of biliverdin-IX in humans.
abstract: The distribution and relative proportions of the four isomers of alpha-, beta-, gamma- and delta-biliverdin-IX were investigated using urinary samples from seven healthy adults. The biliverdins from samples were adsorbed on talc, and the adsorbed biliverdins were then soaked in a solution of methanol and concentrated sulfuric acid for derivation to the dimethyl esters. The esters were passed to a reversed-phase cartridge for clean-up, then quantitated by HPLC on a reversed-phase column. The analyses revealed that the biliverdins in 24-h urine were comprised of 6.4 +/- 2.5 nmol alpha- and 9.3 +/- 5.4 nmol beta-isomers. The HPLC analyses suggested the presence of a delta-isomer in a much smaller amount, but no gamma-isomer was detected. The identifications of alpha- and beta-isomers were performed with co-chromatography and absorption spectra.
authors.affiliation: School of Health Sciences, Okayama University, Japan.
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Hirota
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001664:Biliverdine / Q000652:urine*; D002855:Chromatography, Thin Layer; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007536:Isomerism; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012016:Reference Values; D013056:Spectrophotometry, Ultraviolet
chemical_list: D001664:Biliverdine