Ultrafiltration and High-Performance Liquid Chromatographic Analysis of Seminal Carbohydrates,organic acids and Sugar Alcohols

Abstract

The efficiency of ultrafiltration and high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) in the analysis of the dialysable carbohydrates, organic acids and sugar alcohols in human seminal plasma is evaluated. Under standardized flow conditions an optimal separation of citric acid, inositol, fructose, sorbitol, ribose and lactic acid is achieved with a precision of pm 2% by coupling two polystyrene based strong cation-exchange resin columns in series. Proving equally efficient and reproducible, a single column allows a far more rapid routine analysis of citric acid and fructose in human seminal plasma, the system being linear within the biological range of concentrations. Moreover excellent correlation is found between enzymatic, isotachophoretic and high-performance liquid chromatographic analyses of citric acid and fructose. The efficiency of the method is further improved by means of ultrafiltration, making a simple and rapid preparation of protein-free samples possible and reducing the time of HPLC analysis by 40 minutes as compared to protein precipitation by means of methanol.