Quantitation of metabolites in human blood serum by proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy. A comparative study of the use of formate and TSP as concentration standards.

Formate has been evaluated as an alternative standard to quantitate human serum metabolites in 1H NMR spin-echo spectra. The comparison between added formate and 3-(trimethylsilyl) 3,3,3,3-tetradeutero-propionic acid (TSP) shows that, unlike TSP, formate does not interact with serum macromolecules. Transverse and longitudinal proton relaxation times have been measured on several serum metabolites, in the presence of ammonium chloride. With the exception of glucose, values of metabolite concentrations derived from Hahn spin-echo spectra recorded on serum containing 15.4 mM exogenous formate as a standard, are in excellent agreement with the results of biochemical and chromatographic assays, after correction for differential relaxation effects. This approach can be readily used for quantitation of metabolites from blood serum (and eventually other physiological fluids) in normal and in pathological situations not involving disorders of endogenous formate metabolism.