Early Life Stage Mortality Syndrome in Fishes of the Great Lakes and Baltic Sea

Thiamine Analysis in Fish Tissues

S. B. Brown, D. C. Honeyfield, and L. Vandenbyllaardt

doi: https://doi.org/10.47886/9781888569087.ch8

Abstract.—Thiamine pyrophosphate, thiamine monophosphate, and thiamine were measured by reversed phase high-performance liquid chromatography in tissues of lake trout Salvelinus namaycush and alewife Alosa pseudoharengus. Mean assay sensitivity for thiamine and its phosphates was 0.012 pmol. Average recoveries of low and high doses of thiamine compounds added to tissue samples ranged from 91.4 to 104.5%. Average coefficients of variation for between assay reproducibility ranged from 4.8 to 12.8%. The predominant form of vitamin B₁ was unesterified thiamine in eggs and plasma of lake trout. Thiamine pyrophosphate was the predominant form in red blood cells, liver, muscle, and kidney. The stability of thiamine forms in fish tissues was temperature and species dependent. Thiamine levels were markedly depressed in lake trout collected from Lake Ontario relative to levels in fish captured from Lake 468 at the Experimental Lakes Area in northwestern Ontario.