A new device for the efficient pulverisation and extraction of myocardial biopsies for high energy phosphate analysis

Abstract
We developed a new device for processing frozen myocardial biopsies. Frozen samples of 20 to 50 mg were dropped into a 25 ml stainless steel centrifuge tube held in a custom-made aluminium container precooled in liquid nitrogen. A stainless steel pestle attached to a stainless steel disk was driven by a modified heavy-duty staple gun to pulverise the tissue rapidly at low temperatures. The tissue powder was extracted with 0.3N PCA at 0°C in the centrifuge tube which was then transferred to a Sorvall super-speed centrifuge. Values for adenosine triphosphate (ATP) were 5.6 ± 0.7 μmol·g−1 wet weight (mean ± SD). Creatine phosphate (CP) yield was 12.2 ± 3 μmol·gμ1 wet weight. The % recovery of an added internal standard for ATP was 86 ± 18% and for CP 90 ± 16% with the new method.

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