Abstract: Indirect assays have claimed to quantify phytate (InsP 6 ) levels in human biofluids, but these have been based on the initial assumption that InsP 6 is there, an assumption that our more direct assays disprove. We have shown that InsP 6 does not and cannot (because of the presence of an active InsP 6 phosphatase in serum) exist in mammalian serum or urine. Therefore, any physiological effects of dietary InsP 6 can only be due either to its actions in the gut as a polyvalent cation chelator, or to inositol generated by its dephosphorylation by ...
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Topics: 
Biochemistry
Cell biology