Routine analysis of catecholamines and metabolites in urine by a liquid chromatographic column switching system

A reversed-phase liquid chromatographic technique including a column switching system has been adapted for the routine measurement of catecholamines and their metabolites (14 compounds) in urine. From 1 ml of urine all the compounds and the internal standards were obtained according to combined extraction procedures involving organic solvent, anionic and weakly cationic resins. Finally four extracts (catecholamines, methoxamines, acidic and neutral derivatives) had to be chromatographed throughout a wholly automated apparatus. For each run, the column switching system determined the analytical columns to be used to obtain the separation of the compounds from interferences due to other co-extracted endogenous substances, while the analysis times remained between 20 and 40 min. Such a system allowed the rapid clean-up of columns (in direct- and back-flush mode) carried out between two consecutive injections. By coupling on-line fluorimetric and electrochemical detections the specificity of the technique could be checked, since the ratio of the responses of both detectors was an index of the purity of the peaks. Finally the advanced automation of the equipment allowed weekly the evaluation of catecholamines and the whole range of their known metabolites in 36 urine samples.     

Separation of Twenty Biogenic Amines and Derivatives by a High-performance Liquid Chromatographic Column Switching Technique with On-line Fluorimetric and Electrochemical Detections

Abstract

A new high-performance liquid chromatographic technique including the use of an automated column switching system has been developed for the study of dopamine, norepinephrine, epinephrine and serotonin and their related metabolites in biological samples. Through two runs, it has been possible to separate twenty derivatives and three internal standards which have to be added to samples prior to the extraction procedures. In each case, the column switching system allowed to obtain a clear separation of all the compounds, which will be of importance to avoid any expected interference from other endogenous substances, while decreasing the analysis time. By coupling on-line fluorimetric and electrochemical detections the specificity of the technique was enhanced, since the ratio of the responses of both detectors was an index of the purity of the peaks. In addition, fluorimetric detection was found of value to free the determination of some compunds from the effects of solvent front while electrochemical detection increased the sensitivity. Finally, the column switching system allowed a rapid cleaning of the columns between two analyses. A typical application to a human urine sample was shown.     

Automated on-line multi-dimensional high-performance liquid chromatographic techniques for the clean-up and analysis of water-soluble samples

The application of an automated on-line multi-dimensional liquid-liquid chromatographic technique for the clean-up and analysis of water-soluble samples was investigated. The use of microparticulate aqueous-compatible steric exclusion columns as the primary separation step coupled to either reversed-phase, normal-phase or ion-exchange columns as the secondary step allowed the direct injection of complex samples without prior clean-up. The entire operation was automatically controlled by a microprocessor-based liquid chromatograph with time-programmable events which allowed precise switching of high-pressure pneumatically operated valves. Both heart-cutting and on-column concentration methods were used. The heart-cutting technique had the advantage of selectivity but lacked sensitivity; more successful was the on-column concentration technique, which, by the concentration of the solute from a larger volume of exclusion column effluent on to the secondary column, gave better sensitivity. The technique was applied to the analysis of theophylline and caffeine in biological fluids, catecholamines in urine, vitamins in a protein food supplement and sugars in molasses and candy bars.     

Determination of 13 Catecholamines,Indoleamines, Metabolites and Precursors in Less Than 20 Minutes During a Single HPLC Run

Abstract

Thirteen catecholamines and indoleamines are rapidly separated during a single HPLC run. They include epinephrine, norepinephrine, dopamine, serotonin, the major metabolites of these compounds and their immediate precursors. The technique was developed in order to analyze several biogenic amines in brain tissues simultaneously but the methodology has universal application. The separation is based on a fine balance between organic solvent, ion pairing reagent, buffers, pH, choice of column and flow rate.     

A Simplified HPLC-ECD Technique for Measurement of Urinary Free Catecholamines

Abstract

A simplified HPLC assay is described for quantification of free urinary catecholamines. The procedure involves exraction of catecholamines, (norepinephrine, epinephrine and dopamine) from urine, using columns filled with Biorex-70. The catecholamines from the extract were separated on a high performance liquid chromatographic system using reverse phase C18, 5 u column and determined by electrochemical detection. Integration and calculations are achieved by a data module using area ratio method with dihydroxybenzylamine as internal standard. Recovery of more than 90% was achieved for each catecholamine. A linear relationship between a wide range of concentrations and ratio of the area of amines to that of internal standard was observed. The method is simple and rapid and therefore can be used to analyze a large number of samples in one day and should prove useful in studies involving the role of catecholamines in different psychiatric disorders.     

Sample Preparation for the Analysis of Catecholamines and their Metabolites in Human Urine

Abstract

A specific, sensitive, qualitative and quantitative extraction procedure followed by an high pressure liquid chromatography equipped with electrochemical detector assay of catecholamines (CATs) and their metabolites from human urine has been developed. Using an unique multiple interaction bonded silica gel disposable solid phase extraction (SPE) column, various analytes were selectively isolated from the urine components. After following three different extraction procedures, the presence of free CATs (epinephrine, norepinephrine and dopamine) and their basic (normetanephrine, metanephrine, and 3-methoxydopamine) and acidic (vanillylmandelic acid, homovanillic acid and 5-hydroxyindoleacetic acid) metabolites was confirmed and quantitated by electrochemical detector.     

Determination of Organic Acids in Apple and Cider by Liquid Chromatography with ordinary and narrow-bore columns. A Comparative Study

Abstract

Two narrow-bore columns packed with octadecylsilane of various particle sizes were used to compare their efficiency for the separation of organic acids in apple and cider with that of ordinary columns. The best simultaneous resolution of quinic, malic, shikimic, lactic, acetic, citric and succinic acid was accomplished by using a 100 × 2.1 mm ID, 3-μm Spherisorb ODS-2 column and a phosphate buffer as the mobile phase. This chromatographic system provided a separation efficiency comparable to that afforded by an ordinary 250 × 4.6 mm ID, 5-μm Spherisorb ODS-2 column, plus greater rapidity (30%) and economy, all of which allowed the accurate, precise determination (CV=3%) of the above-mentioned compounds. Finally, the performance of an ordinary UV detector and that of a rapid spectral detector in this type of determination were critically compared.     

Analysis of Trace Amounts of Catecholamines and Related Compounds in Brain Tissue: A Study Near the Detection Limit of Liquid Chromatography with Electrochemical Detection

Abstract

Analysis of catecholamines and related metabolites is often based on direct injection on the HPLC column of supernatants of centrifuged brain homogenates. In this study we have investigated to what extent direct injection techniques are also useful for analysis in the picogram-range. The use of Sephadex G 10 (which allows a rapid sample purification for 11 compounds) appeared an attractive alternative when direct injection techniques cannot be applied. Various aspects of the routine use of the electrochemical detector at a sensitive setting are discussed. Finally the identity of small peaks in the chromatogram is addressed.     

Separation of phenolic compounds and corresponding glucuronides by coupled-column micellar reversed-phase liquid chromatography

Summary An isocratic HPLC technique for separation of phenolic compounds and corresponding glucuronides in urine is developed. Sample pre-treatment, often a tedious and rate-limiting factor, was eliminated by use of a coupled column system. Spiked urine samples were injected directly into a C₄ precolumn and a selected fraction was transferred on-line from the precolumn to a silanized C₁₈ analytical column in the backflush mode. Analyte peak enrichment was attained by employing mobile phases of different elution strengths. The weaker mobile phase (7% v/v acetonitrile) was used to strongly retain the analytes on the precolumn while most of the polar endogenous compounds were washed to waste. Elution and transfer of the trapped analytes from the precolumn to the analytical column was achieved by introducing a stronger mobile phase (20% v/v acetonitrile) with the aid of a switching valve. The use of cetyltrimethylammonium bromide as counter ion and micellar agent in the mobile phase involved a high selectivity for the analytes relative to the urine matrix components and allowed simultaneous analysis of the glucuronides and parent compounds without the need of gradient elution. The system demonstrated a good repeatability on spiked urine samples. Who passed away July 21, 1996     

Increased Flexibility in Multicolumn Chromatography (MC[sbnd]HPLC) via On-line Effluent Mixing Technique

Abstract

In continuation of our work dealing with multicolumn HPLC (MC[sbnd]HPLC) we describe in this paper an on-line on-column fraction trapping technique based on effluent mixing.

To a normal two-column switching set-up (in this case with two RP columns) an additional high-pressure pump gets inserted into the connection line between column A and column B via a low dead volume mixing tee. The in-line respectively off-line switching of pump B and the mobile phase B is time controlled by using a high pressure switching valve. With this set-up it is possible to mix on-line an effluent fraction from column A and transferred onto column B with a highly polar and pH-controlled (e.g. aqueous buffer) new effluent, to reduce or adjust significantly the overall elution strength of this mixed transferred solvent. Thus, several chromatographically effective possibilities can be created in a simple manner, which are for example: (a) pronounced peak compression respectively on-column concentration on column B; (b) due to low elution strength and/or pH adjustment during the trapping period on column B, increments to the overall selectivity of the column switching set-up can be added creating multidimensionality via mobile phase switching; (c) combining the heart cut with the effluent mixing technique enables analysis of trace peaks eluted on the back flank of an overloaded main peak.     

Isolation of new quinidine metabolites and simultaneous determination of quinidine and its metabolites in blood and urine by direct injection HPLC analysis

Summary New quinidine metabolites, including 10,11-dihydrodiol quinidine N-oxide, 10,11-dihydrodiol quinidine and their glucuronides, were found in human urine. A quinidine monitoring HPLC method including these metabolites, is proposed by the direct injection of body fluid samples onto the precolumn for deproteinization followed by reverse phase separation in the analytical column with a column switching technique. The recovery of spiked quinidine and its metabolites in plasma was quantitative (98–102%) with good reproducibility (C.V.: 1.6–4.0%). Several clinical samples such as whole blood and urine were analyzed by the present method.     

Simple method for the simultaneous determination of acetylcholine, choline, noradrenaline, dopamine and serotonin in brain tissue by high-performance liquid chromatography with electrochemical detection

A simple method for the simultaneous determination of acetylcholine, choline, noradrenaline, dopamine and serotonin in brain tissue was developed by using high-performance liquid chromatography with electrochemical detection. These compounds are analysed in a single chromatographic run within 30 min with a simple sample clean-up procedure. The detection system consists of two electrochemical detector cells aligned in series: a glassy-carbon electrode for catecholamines and serotonin, and a platinum electrode for acetylcholine and choline. For the detection of the latter compounds, they were converted enzymatically into hydrogen peroxide through a column reactor with immobilized acetylcholinesterase and choline oxidase. A column of boronic acid gel was placed just ahead of the immobilized enzyme column to remove catecholamines, which caused interfering responses on the platinum electrode. Two equivalent analytical columns and a column switching were employed to speed up the serotonin assay. Simultaneous determination of these major neurotransmitters in rat brain regions was successfully carried out with the system described.     

Direct Analysis of Phenol, Catechol and Hydroquinone in Human Urine by Coupled-Column HPLC with Fluorimetric Detection

Phenol, catechol, and hydroquinone, are urinary end-products of the metabolism of benzene, nutrients, drugs, and endogenous substances. Recent research demonstrated that phenol, catechol, and hydroquinone, may have themselves a role in the carcinogenicity of benzene and in mechanisms that lead to leukemia. In this respect there is the need of rapid, low-cost, and possibly direct methods to quantitate these phenolic metabolites. Three single-residue coupled-column HPLC methods with fluorimetric detection (LC-LC-FLD) are described for the direct quantitation of phenol, catechol, and hydroquinone, in human urine. After enzymatic hydrolysis of the corresponding beta-glucuronoconjugates and sulfates, urine was directly injected into the LC-LC analyzer. The LC-LC-FLD procedure allowed base-to-base separation of the target compounds from urine interferents and good linearity (r² = 0.998) within the ranges studied (0.5–50 mg L⁻¹ for phenol, 0.35–35 mg L⁻¹ for catechol and 0.2–10 mg L⁻¹ for hydroquinone). Despite the high background levels of these metabolites in human urine, within- and inter-session precision expressed as RSD% was better than 20% on spiked and on authentic urine samples obtained from benzene-exposed workers. Accuracy expressed as the recovery ratio between measured and nominal concentration in spiked urine was comprised between 93% and 115% for the three metabolites. The column switching system was fully automated and computer-controlled, and was applied to the determination of phenol, catechol, and hydroquinone in urine samples showing a sample throughput of at least 20–30 samples per day.Revised: 21 February and 7 April 2005     

Gas Chromatographic Analysis of DDT-Type Compounds

Abstract

Four columns have been used experimentally in combination with an electron capture detector, which allowed the determination of 25 DDT-type compounds, some of which have been reported as DDT breakdown products in many biological and nonbiological systems. The liquid phases were 5% QF-i, 5% Igepal, 5% Versamid 900, and 5% DC-11. The solid support for the 4 columns was 80 to 100 mesh Chromosorb W. Optimal temperatures (°C) for the columns were 190 (column), 210 (detector), and 230 (injector port). Optimal nitrogen flow rate was 35 ml/min., for all columns. The trimethylsilyl derivatives of the polar DDT-type compounds, DBH, DDOH, Dicofol, and DDA were successfully gas chromatographed on the column 5% QF-1 and the mixed column 2.5% QF-1 + 2.5% SE-30.     

Comparison of Octadecyl-Bonded Alumina and Other Stationary Phases for Lipophilicity Estimation by High Performance Liquid Chromatography

Abstract

A recently developed octadecyl-bonded alumina stationary phase (ODA) was evaluated for determining the lipophilicities of organic compounds by high performance liquid chromatography. Using a column packed with this material and mobile phases consisting of methanol and aqueous buffers, the correlation between the octanol-water partition coefficients (log P's) of compounds of various chemical classes and the logarithms of their chromatographic capacity factors (log k's) was found to be superior to that obtained using columns packed with octadecylsilica, poly butadiene-coated alumina or octadecyl-derivanzed polystyrene-divinylbenzene copolymer. In contrast to results obtained with other columns, phenols and other hydrogen-bonding compounds did not need to be treated as a separate data set on the ODA column to obtain good correlations between log k's and log P's. The resistance of ODA to degradation by alkaline solvents allowed the use of a basic mobile phase (pH > 10) for suppressing ionization and determining the lipophilicities of organic bases which could not be evaluated within the stable pH range of ODS (pH 2–8). The log P's of five basic pharmaceutical compounds determined in this manner were found to be significantly higher than previously reported values. Evidence is presented which indicates that the previously reported log P values of these compounds are inaccurate, due to improper correction for ionization.     

Pretreatment and one-shot separating analysis of whole catecholamine metabolites in plasma by using LC/MS

Catecholamines are biogenic amines that play an important role in the nervous system. Some catecholamines have been used as tumor makers of phenochromocytoma, paraganglioma and neuroblastoma. The analysis of total catecholamine metabolites should be useful for one-shot screening of multiple aspects of diseases; however, it is difficult to do this, because the catecholamine metabolites are divided into three groups: five amines, one amino acid and three carbonic acids. Catecholamines and small molecules were separated from plasma proteins by an internal-surface reversed-phase column (protein-coated octadeyclsilica column) and were analyzed by liquid chromatography (LC)/mass spectrometry (MS) using electrospray ionization time-of-flight MS. Using a reversed-phase column and hydrophilic mobile phases, we succeeded in the separation of nine catecholamines, all of which had similar structures. These nine substances were eluted in the following order: norepinephrine, epinephrine, normetanephrine, dopamine, metanephrine, 3,4-dihydroxyphenylalanine, vanillomandelic acid, 3,4-dihydroxyphenylacetic acid and homovanillic acid. The reproducibility of this method was acceptable. The highest coefficient of variation was 7.4%. In addition, various types of compounds were separated from and detected in plasma proteins by applying LC/MS. The plasma direct injection method, which uses an internal-surface reversed-phase column and an ion-pair reagent, allowed us to separate small molecules from plasma proteins. MS detected some compounds that high-performance LC could not succeed in separating and detecting with UV detection. We think that the method can be applied to find new markers in neuroblastoma, by comparing the plasma of patients with that of normal infants. The method can be also used to help in making a diagnosis of other diseases and finding their new makers.     

Separation of Methylated Purines by High Pressure Liquid Chromatography

Abstract

This paper reports a method for the separation and measurement of methylated purines of interest to carcinogenesis studies by high-pressure liquid chromatography (HPLC) following their column chromatographic isolation from collected urine samples. HPLC was evaluated on three different cation-exchange columns, with optimum conditions obtained on a Partisil 10-SCX column employing isocratic elution with 0.25M (NH₄)H₂PO₄ at pH 4.0. This column was also found to be useful for the separation of mono-methylguanine isomers. Application is shown to the analysis of rat urine following animal treatment with methyl methanesulfonate.     

Blue Chitin Columns for the Extraction of Heterocyclic Amines from Urine Samples

During normal cooking of meat, a class of mutagenic/carcinogenic compounds called heterocyclic amines is formed. Heterocyclic amines are rapidly absorbed and metabolised in the human body, and for estimation of the intake of heterocyclic amines, it is useful to determinate their levels in the urine. Blue Chitin columns were used for the extraction and purification of heterocyclic amines from urine samples spiked with 14 different heterocyclic amines. The samples were analysed using LC-MS. The results show that Blue Chitin columns provide a straightforward and rapid means of extracting heterocyclic amines from urine samples, and that Blue Chitin column are also useful in the purification of urinary metabolites.     

Tunable separation of anions and cations by column switching in ion chromatography

A convenient ion chromatography method has been proposed for the routine and simple determination of anions (Cl⁻, SO₄²⁻ and NO₃⁻) and/or cations (Na⁺, NH₄⁺, K⁺, Mg²⁺ and Ca²⁺) using a single pump, a single eluent and a single detector. The present system used cation-exchange and anion-exchange columns connected in series via two 6-port switching valves or a single 10-port valve. The connection order of the ion-exchange columns could be varied by switching the valve(s). The present system therefore allowed the separation of either cations or anions in a single chromatographic run. While one ion-exchange column is being operated, the other ion-exchange column is being conditioned, i.e., the columns are always ready for analysis at any time. When 2.4 mM 5-sulfosalicylic acid was used as the eluent, the three anions and the five cations could be separated on the anion-exchange column and cation-exchange column, respectively. In order to obtain the separations of the target ions, the injection valve was placed between the two columns. Complete separations of the above anions or cations were demonstrated within 10 min each. The detection limits at S/N = 3 were 19-50 ppb (μg/l) for cations and 10-14 ppb for anions. The relative standard deviations of the analyte ions were less than 1.1, 2.9 and 2.8% for retention time, peak area and peak height, respectively. This proposed technique was applied to the determination of common anions and cations in river water samples.     

Analysis of ginseng root and leaf by multiple columns and detections liquid chromatography

Abstract

A multiple columns and detections liquid chromatography system, including size exclusion chromatography (SEC) and reversed phase liquid chromatography (RPLC), for the analysis of macromolecules and micromolecules in ginseng root and leaf was developed. The columns were connected by two switching valves. Macromolecules were separated on a SEC column (TSK gel SuperMultipore PW-H column, 6?mm× 150?mm, 8?μm) by isocratic elution of 50?mM ammonium acetate aqueous solution, 0.3?mL/min of flow rate and detected by evaporative light scattering detection (ELSD). Micromolecules were analyzed on a Poroshell RP column (Agilent Poroshell 120?SB-Aq column, 4.6?mm × 50?mm, 2.7 µm) with gradient elution of water and acetonitrile, 0.6?mL/min of flow rate and detected by ultraviolet detection (UV). As a result, in the macromolecules chromatogram of ginseng root sample showed two main peaks while only one major peak for ginseng leaf. For micromolecules analysis, 17 compounds (3 nucleosides + 14 saponins) and 17 compounds (3 nucleosides + 1 flavonoid + 13 saponins) were found in ginseng root and leaf, respectively. The developed method is helpful for the quality evaluation of ginseng root and leaf.