Table 1 |.

Acetate concentrations in human tissues

Tissue	[Acetate] (mM)*	Range (mM)‡	Refs
Portal vein	0.219 ± 0.123	0.128–0.375	14,18,106,107
Arterial plasma	0.140 ± 0.052	0.056–0.212	108–113
Venous plasma	0.074 ± 0.035	0.035–0.140	12,14,106,107,112, 114–118 and Z.T.S., L Zheng and E.G., unpublished observations
Plasma (post-alcohol)§	0.621 ± 0.101	0.520–0.760	20,21,115,119
Plasma (post-fibre)║	0.193 ± 0.068	0.114–0.295	12,109,111,112,120

^*Plasma acetate concentrations are shown as the mean ± s.e.m. of the values reported in the cited references. Participants in these studies were typically fasted overnight before analyses. In all cases, efforts were made to ensure values are representative of normal, healthy individuals, with the exception of the alcohol studies, which did include some alcoholic patients.

^‡The range represents the lowest and highest mean acetate concentration reported for each particular tissue.

^§For alcohol studies, volunteers were administered ethanol and plasma acetate concentrations were monitored at various time points for up to 8 hours.

^║For the fibre studies, subjects were typically fasted overnight and then placed on a starch diet (30–60 g) or administered lactulose (10–20 g).