Determination of homocysteine in human plasma by micellar electrokinetic chromatography and in-capillary detection reaction with 2,2'-dipyridyl disulfide.

We present a new method for homocysteine quantitation in human plasma based on in-capillary reaction of homocysteine with 2,2'-dipyridyl disulfide. Homocysteine is in this so-called thiol-exchange reaction quantitatively transformed in mixed disulfide concomitantly with formation of an equimolar amount of 2-thiopyridone that is further separated by micellar electrokinetic chromatography and determined specifically at 343 nm. The concentration of homocysteine is thus estimated indirectly from the result of 2-thiopyridone determination. The linear detection range for concentration versus peak area for the assay was from 0.03-3 mM (correlation coefficient 0.994) with a detection limit of 6 microM and a limit of quantitation 20 microM. The inter-day reproducibility of the peak area and the migration time were 1.37% and 0.05%, respectively. The method is simple, relatively rapid and can be easily automated. Moreover the common capillary electrophoresis apparatus with a UV detector can be used to distinguish between normal and pathological hyperhomocysteinemia plasma samples.

Monitoring of dithiothreitol clearance by means of micellar electrokinetic chromatography.

A new method for specific determination of dithiothreitol (DTT) using micellar electrokinetic chromatography and on-column reaction with reactive disulfide-2,2'-dipyridyldisulfide is described. DTT in this reaction is quantitatively transformed into a mixed disulfide concomitantly with formation of equimolar amount of the 2-thiopyridone that is further separated by micellar electrokinetic chromatography and determined spectrophotometrically at 343 nm. The concentration of DTT is thus estimated indirectly from the result of 2-thiopyridone determination. The linear detection range for concentration versus peak area for the assay is from 0.05 to 2.5 mM (correlation coefficient 0.993) with a detection limit of 2.5 microM. The inter-day reproducibility of the peak area was 1.35% and the inter-day reproducibility of the migration time 0.56%. The method can be applied for DTT monitoring both in chemical and biological systems.

Analysis of artichoke (Cynara cardunculus L.) extract by means of micellar electrokinetic capillary chromatography.

The main constituents of artichoke extract were separated by micellar electrokinetic chromatography (MEKC), using a buffer consisting of 100 mM sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) in 20 mM sodium dihydrogen phosphate, 20 mM disodium tetraborate (pH 8.6) as background electrolyte. Optimum separation voltage of 28 kV (positive polarity) and a capillary temperature of 25 degrees C gave the best analysis. The UV detection was performed at 200 nm. The method was successfully used to analyze plant and drug samples as well as for the study of artichoke antioxidant activity. The quantitative MEKC results were in good agreement to those obtained previously by reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography (RP-HPLC).

Determination of lignans in Schisandra chinensis using micellar electrokinetic capillary chromatography.

Micellar electrokinetic capillary chromatography (MEKC) has been developed as a promising method for the determination of lignans in plant samples. The separation conditions have been optimized with respect to the different parameters including sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) and acetonitrile concentration, pH of the background electrolyte, separation voltage, and capillary temperature. The background electrolyte consisting of 40 mM SDS and 35% acetonitrile in 10 mM tetraborate buffer (pH 9.3) was found to be the most suitable electrolyte for this analysis. The applied voltage of 28 kV (positive polarity) and the capillary temperature 25 degrees C gave the best separation of lignans. The interday reproducibility of the peak areas and the migration times was below 2.0%. The results of MEKC analyses were compared with those obtained by capillary electrochromatography (CEC) and reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography (RP-HPLC). The possibilities of using this method for the determination of lignans in drug and in serum samples were also tested.