salicylates and bicinchoninic-acid

A comparative study was made between two carbohydrate reducing value methods, a relatively old, highly alkaline, 3,5-dinitrosalicylic acid (DNSA) method and a relatively newer, low alkaline (pH 10.5), copper bicinchoninate (CuBic) method. Reducing values for a series of equimolar amounts of maltose-maltohexaose, isomaltose-isomaltohexaose, and cellobiose-cellohexaose were compared by the two methods. The DNSA method gave over-oxidation for equimolar amounts of all three of the oligosaccharide series. The amount of oxidation increased as the sizes of the oligosaccharides increased, giving inflated, inaccurate reducing values. The CuBic method gave constant reducing values, for equimolar amounts of the oligosaccharides, indicating that there was no over-oxidation, as the sizes of the oligosaccharides were increased. The two methods were used to determine the number average molecular weights (MWn) for six polysaccharides. The DNSA method was not able to determine the MWn for any of the polysaccharides tested due to the low sensitivity of the method, compared with the CuBic method that did not give over-oxidation and gave reasonable MWn values for all six of the polysaccharides tested.

Topics: Animals; Copper; Molecular Weight; Oxidation-Reduction; Quinolines; Rabbits; Reproducibility of Results; Salicylates

We adapted the protocols of reducing sugar measurements with dinitrosalicylic acid and bicinchoninic acid for thermocyclers and their use in enzymatic assays for hydrolases such as amylase and β-1,3-glucanase. The use of thermocyclers for these enzymatic assays resulted in a 10 times reduction in the amount of reagent and volume of the sample needed when compared with conventional microplate protocols. We standardized absorbance readings from the polymerase chain reaction plates, which allowed us to make direct readings of the techniques above, and a β-glycosidase assay was also established under the same conditions. Standardization of the enzymatic reaction in thermocyclers resulted in less time-consuming temperature calibrations and without loss of volume through leakage or evaporation from the microplate. Kinetic parameters were successfully obtained, and the use of the thermocycler allowed the measurement of enzymatic activities in biological samples from the field with a limited amount of protein.

Topics: Amylases; Enzyme Assays; Glucan 1,3-beta-Glucosidase; Humans; Kinetics; Miniaturization; Quinolines; Salicylates; Saliva; Starch