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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2016 Jun 3.
Published in final edited form as: Neurobiol Aging. 2014 Apr 2;35(10):2329–2346. doi: 10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2014.03.032

Fig. 1.

Fig. 1

Brain bioavailability of Ubisol-Q10 components. (A) Structure of polyoxyethanyl α-tocopheryl sebacate (PTS). The tripartite PTS molecule is amphiphilic with hydrophobic and hydrophilic parts of α-tocopherol and PEG 600 derivatives, respectively, separated by 8 carbon aliphatic spacer of sebacate. The chemical formula of PTS is C65H118O18 when n = 12 (in PEG) and the estimated molecular mass is 1210. Arrows indicate potential cleavage sites for nonspecific esterases. (B) Suspension of CoQ10 in water. CoQ10 is insoluble in water and floats on the surface. (C) Ubisol-Q10 formulation in water. CoQ10 was co-melted with PTS at a ratio 1:3 wt/wt (or 1:2 mol/mol) and subsequently diluted with water to 50 mg CoQ10/mL, as previously described (Borowy-Borowski et al., 2004). The clear yellow solution of Ubisol-Q10 is stable at room temperature for ≥2 years and could be diluted further to any required concentration. (D–G) Mice were given Ubisol-Q10 (6mg CoQ10/kg BW)by gavage and were sacrificed 1, 3, 6 and 24 hours later. CoQ10 (E) and vitamin E (G) were extracted from the brains and analyzed by HPLC (D and F, respectively) as described in Section 2. (D) Representative chromatogram of CoQ10 separation by HPLC. Black arrow shows CoQ10 peak and gray arrow shows CoQ9 peak with appropriate retention times written above the arrows. (E) Brain contents of CoQ10 following Ubisol-Q10 ingestion. Results are shown as mean ± SEM (n=5–10 per group, from 2 separate experiments). Statistically significant differences between control versus 1, 3, 6, and 24 hours groups are indicated as *** p ≤ 0.001; ** p ≤ 0.01; * p ≤ 0.05. (F) Representative chromatogram of vitamin E (VE) separation by HPLC. Black arrow indicates peak of α-tocopherol with retention time written above the arrow. (G) Brain contents of vitamin E following Ubisol-Q10 ingestion. Results are shown as mean ± SEM(n=6–8 per group, from 2 separate experiments). Statistically significant differences between control versus 1, 3, and 6 hours groups are indicated as *** p ≤ 0.001 and * p ≤ 0.05. Abbreviations: CoQ10, coenzyme Q10; SEM, standard error of the mean.