A new procedure to analyze free fatty acids. Application to 20-mg brain tissue samples.

Fatty acids were analyzed by a new method which involved their isolation from hexane extracts of serum or brain tissue in aqueous potassium hydroxide (10 microliter) and methylation directly in this solution with methyl iodide. The resulting fatty acid methyl esters were partitioned into ethylene chloride (25 microliter) and were quantitated by gas-liquid chromatography. The procedure was documented by comparison with conventional methylation reactions on serum fatty acids. This method, which avoids thin-layer chromatography and which measures individual free fatty acid concentrations in 20-mg brain tissue samples, should be of particular value for examining regional free fatty acids in brain following ischemia and trauma.