Biomedical applications of analytical supercritical fluid separation techniques

Bioanalytical applications using supercritical fluid techniques

The bioanalytical applications of supercritical fluid techniques, such as supercritical fluid extraction (SFE) and supercritical fluid chromatography (SFC), are of increasing interest. The main role of these techniques is in the sample preparation and separation of biologically active compounds, particularly drugs and their metabolites, as well as endogenous compounds. An insight is given into the different types of extracting fluids and modifiers, detectors, stationary phases, mobile phases and collection strategies. A critical discussion is presented on the existing state of the art concerning the applications of SFC and SFE with a specific focus on its advantages and limitations in the bioanalytical field. New developments and the possibilities for routine work in the near future are also covered.

Separation techniques for bile salts analysis

The analysis of bile salts in biological samples has remained a difficult task, due to the complex nature of the salts and also to their low concentration in common sample fluids such as plasma and urine. Given their importance, the development of accurate and sensitive methods of instrumental analysis has been the subject of intensive research, and recent advances have eliminated or lessened some of the difficulties. Currently available techniques are the following: thin-layer chromatography, gas chromatography, high-performance liquid chromatography, supercritical fluid chromatography, gas chromatography-mass spectrometry and capillary electrophoresis. Liquid chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry (thermospray, fast atom bombardment, electrospray and ionspray), a method undergoing continuous improvement, is also being applied to bile salts analysis. In this paper, these various techniques, which differ greatly in specificity, accuracy and simplicity, are reviewed and discussed, in terms of analytical performance, applicability to a given sample fluid, major limitations, ability to identify uncommon bile salts, including unsaturated oxo derivatives, glucuronides, sulfates, glycosides and bile alcohols.

Capillary electrophoresis and supercritical chromatography, complementary and alternative techniques for the determination of urinary metabolites of styrene

Two analytical methods without an extraction step were developed using capillary electrophoresis and supercritical fluid chromatography in order to determine phenylglyoxylic (PGA) and mandelic (MA) acids in urine, with minimum treatment and manipulation of biological samples. The urine was diluted ten-fold in acetonitrile and directly injected into the analytical systems after centrifugation. Analysis was performed by capillary electrophoresis on alkyl bonded phase capillary columns with sodium formiate (4 x 10(-2) M)-isopropanol (9:1, v/v) as a buffer, and by supercritical fluid chromatography on a Diol bonded phase silica column with ethanol-water-methanesulphonic acid (97.5:2.4:0.1, v/v) as coeluent of CO2. Detection of PGA and MA was performed by ultraviolet detection at 255 and 210 nm, respectively. The methods are in agreement, and are easily able to detect 5 mg/g creatinine for PGA, and 15 mg/g creatinine for MA, which are one twentieth of the lowest biological exposure index values.

Bile acid separation

A review of the methods available for the separation of bile acids is presented, highlighting the most recent developments. The major chromatographic techniques (TLC, GC, HPLC) and combined detection systems for the determination of bile acids are critically evaluated and their advantages and disadvantages discussed. Moreover, future directions in which progress might occur are also indicated. Capillary GC-MS is the more established method since it provides higher efficiency combined with greater sensitivity and specificity and has proven crucial in identifying unusual bile acids. However, it requires deconjugation and derivatization and hence the conjugated species must be inferred from the initial isolation procedure. HPLC is directly amenable to the different forms of bile acids, but it suffers from insufficient resolving power which can be enhanced by exploiting the mobile-phase selectivity. The development of HPLC detection systems with higher sensitivity and specificity than conventional HPLC-UV is reported. In particular, methods for the direct coupling of HPLC to MS are examined with special emphasis on soft ionization processes (thermospray, fast atom bombardment, ion spray). Finally, the analytical potential for bile acid assays of more recent techniques including supercritical fluid chromatography and capillary electrophoresis is evaluated.

Derivatization reactions for neurotransmitters and their automation

Many reagents suitable for the derivatization of neurotransmitters are selective for the amino function. Others, however, are selective for the carboxyl-, thiol- and hydroxyl function, and recently, reagents selective for more than one function have been produced. Interest persists in the established reagents, with their well understood behaviour which assists automation of analysis as much as new technology. Workers appear reluctant to tackle the optimization of many novel reagents. Chiral reagents may become important if d-amino acids are shown to be significant from a physiological point of view. Solid-phase reagents offer better regulated chemistry and combined derivatization/solid-phase extraction, which make them an exciting prospect.

Evaluation of capillary supercritical fluid chromatography with mass spectrometric detection for the analysis of a drug (mebeverine) in a dog plasma matrix

Supercritical fluid chromatography with mass spectrometric detection was evaluated as a technique for the analysis of drugs in biological fluids. Dog plasma was spiked with a model drug, mebeverine, and with a deuterium-labeled analog of mebeverine. The spiked plasma was prepared for analysis by solid-phase extraction on octadecylsilane cartridges. Mebeverine levels in the spiked dog plasma samples were determined by interpolation from a standard curve. Accuracy and precision of the analysis were determined within and between days. In general, accuracy was found to be 100 +/- 15% for plasma samples spiked with 6 to 60 ng mebeverine/ml. The relative standard deviation for replicate sample analysis over this concentration range was between 5 and 12.5%.