A simple method for the isolation and purification of total lipides from animal tissues.

Work from this laboratory resulted in the development of a method for the preparation and purification of brain lipides (1) which involved two successive operations. In the first step, the lipides were extracted by homogenizing the tissue with 2: 1 chloroform-methanol (v/v), and filtering the homogenate. In the second step, the filtrate, which contained the tissue lipides accompanied by non-lipide substances, was freed from these substances by being placed in contact with at least 5-fold its volume of water. This water washing entailed the loss of about 1 per cent of the brain lipides. This paper describes a simplified version of the method and reports the results of a study of its application to different tissues, including the efficiency of the washing procedure in terms of the removal from tissue lipides of some non-lipide substances of special biochemical interest. It also reports some pertinent ancillary findings. The modifications introduced into the method pertain only to the washing procedure. A chloroformmethanol extract of the tissue, prepared as described in the original version of the method, is mixed with 0.2 its volume of water to which, for certain purposes, different mineral salts may be added. A biphasic system without any interfacial fluff is obtained (2). The upper phase contains all of the non-lipide substances, most of the strandin, and only negligible amounts of the other lipides. The lower phase contains essentially all the tissue lipides other than strandin. In comparison with the original method, the present version has the advantage of being simpler, of being applicable to any scale desired, of substantially decreasing the losses of lipides incidental to the washing process, and, finally, of yielding a washed extract which can be taken to dryness without foaming and without splitting of the proteolipides (3).