In terms of concentration, what is 1000u/ml? Some resources say 1mg/ml and some say 1microg/ml...... help!
(as in the concentration of ADH is 1000u/ml)
2007-03-12 01:29:48 · 6 answers · asked by MiniMed 3 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Chemistry
it means units. The exact meaning of a unit changes depending on the company and the product. Do you mean the enzyme Alcohol dehydrogenase? Usually enzyme units are defined as the amount of enzyme needed to convert a certain amount of substrate into a certain amount of product in a stated length of time. You have to look at the information that came with it from the manufacturor to see their definition. (Or if you don't have it look it up on their website). Depending on what you are doing you probably won't need more than 1 unit/ml at most in your reaction, but you should check what the unit definition is before going ahead.
This holds true for any enzyme and I think hormones as well if by ADH you meant Anti diuretic hormone.
2007-03-12 02:10:01 · answer #1 · answered by Ellie 4 · 2⤊ 0⤋
two possible meanings. U/ml could be a corruption of micrograms per ml, as the greek letter mu is used for micr, and as said previously this looks like a u with a small tail on the let. The other meaning, when dealing with enzymes, is units per ml. this usually refers to the number of active sites (the site in an enzyme where the reaction it catalyses takes place) that are required per ml for a reaction. When refering to enzyme concentration, u/ml tells you how many active sites (ie how many enzyme molecules) there are per ml. tere is a conversion to calculate how many molecules of enzyme there are per unit of enzyme, but i caant remeber it offhamd. These notations are often used for biochemical reactions, as i used to use them in practicals during my degree.
hope this helps some.
2007-03-12 18:55:07 · answer #2 · answered by J J 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It may be a misprint. "Micro" (as in 10^(-6)) is often written as the Greek letter "mu", which is like a "u" but with a tail at the beginning (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mu).
Textbooks are written by humans, so mistakes do happen.
Otherwise, it may be short for units, which might not be important. Can't really say without seeing the context. I've never seen it before, and I have a degree in chemistry.
2007-03-12 09:56:22 · answer #3 · answered by abdotzed 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
that might be formula unit per ml or just unit per ml.
2007-03-12 11:07:28 · answer #4 · answered by mohammed.hamad 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
the u just stands for standard units. it can be anything from micrograms to milligrams - you can't tell.
2007-03-12 08:37:45 · answer #5 · answered by vansiepurple 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
die!
2007-03-12 08:36:37 · answer #6 · answered by Jim S 1 · 0⤊ 3⤋