Relative Rates of Oxidation of Palmitate-1-C 14 by White Blood Cells,Red Cells and Platelets of Rats. ∗

Summary

Fatty acid oxidation by blood cells in vitro has been studied by incubation of 10-times diluted blood of the rat with pal-mitate-1-C¹⁴, followed by determination of C¹⁴O₂ evolved. A modification of the method was introduced for separation of white cells, platelets and red cells by differential centrifu-gation, in order to increase the accuracy of the determinations. The effect of diluted plasma on rate of palmitate-1-C¹⁴ oxidation and action of plasma albumin were taken into consideration. Experimental data indicate that a major portion of the total palmi-tate-l-C¹⁴ oxidation in vitro per unit volume of blood is attributable to white cells and platelets, whereas palmitate-1-C¹⁴ oxidation by red cells is very limited and probably occurs only in the youngest circulating cells. On a per cell basis, white cells oxidize pal-mi tate-l-C¹⁴ at a rate which is about 60 times greater than that of platelets and about 800 times greater than that of red cells with reticulocytes.