A Simple Paper Chromatographic Technique for the Study of Free Metabolites of Tissues and Body Fluids

Abstract

Buzzati-Traverso and Rechnitzer proposed a simple chromatographic technique for taxonomic studies on fishes¹; Buzzati-Traverso applied it also to genetic studies on Drosophila ². In the original technique, the tissues were simply squeezed on filter paper, dried and chromatographed. The method was used almost as such by some authors for taxonomic studies on land snails³, mosquitoes⁴, and for investigating several mouse and tumour tissues⁵. The present method, although starting from the same principle, was developed in a rather different manner. It does not utilize fresh tissues, but tissues which have been dried and powdered. By this means it is possible to use an accurately known amount of tissue, independently of its water content, and to extract completely the free metabolites from the broken cells; furthermore, the samples used may be larger, thus allowing the detection of metabolites which may be present in amounts too small to be detected by the use of small pieces of tissue.