1H NMR analyses of methyl group-containing metabolites in rat liver extracts--effects of starvation, anoxia, acute glycerol and carbon tetrachloride treatment and chronic ethanol administration on hepatic metabolism.

400 MHz 1H NMR spectroscopy was used to analyze methyl group-containing metabolites in perchloric acid extracts of livers of rats treated with carbon tetrachloride or fed with ethanol-containing liquid diets, and sacrificed with carbon dioxide anoxic euthanasia or pentobarbital euthanasia (with or without 12-18 hour fasting). In all cases, coenzyme A was detected using 1H NMR spectroscopy, but at higher levels for chronic ethanol-treated rats. Propionate was also detected in livers 6 hours after treatment with carbon tetrachloride. The assignments of the 1H NMR resonances in a spectrum of biological origin to these two metabolites have not been previously reported. Another unusual metabolite, 1,2-propanediol, was also observed in dramatically elevated levels in starved rats. The methyl groups for coenzyme A, propionate, and 1,2-propanediol have 1H NMR chemical shifts at 0.73 and 0.87 ppm, 1.18 ppm, and 1.14 ppm (from tetramethylsilane) respectively. In addition to the above mentioned resonances, glutamine, glutamate, proline, acetate, leucine, alanine, lactate, ethanol, beta-hydroxybutyrate, and valine were also observed in the 0.5-2.3 ppm methyl region of the 1H NMR spectra. Biochemical changes were also observed in these latter metabolites. beta-Hydroxybutyrate was increased by chronic ethanol administration; this increase was exacerbated by starvation. Alanine was decreased by chronic ethanol administration. Acetate was increased by chronic ethanol administration except when glycerol was added to the liver or when the rat was starved. We also observed an unassigned triplet at 0.81 ppm, and its appearance seems to be correlated with that of 1,2-propanediol.