Very rapid and simple assay of taurine in the brain within two minutes by high-performance liquid chromatography with electrochemical detection

Separation methods for taurine analysis in biological samples

Taurine plays an important role in a variety of physiological functions, pharmacological actions and pathological conditions. Many methods for taurine analysis, therefore, have been reported to monitor its levels in biological samples. This review discusses the following techniques: sample preparation; separation and determination methods including high-performance liquid chromatography, gas chromatography, ion chromatography, capillary electrophoresis and hyphenation procedures. It covers articles published between 1990 and 2001.

Rapid assay of dinitrophenyl derivative of taurine by high-performance liquid chromatography

A rapid and simple method for the determination of taurine (2-aminoethanesulphonic acid) in complex samples is described. It is based on the HPLC separation of the dinitrophenyl (DNP) derivative of taurine. The reaction conditions are selected to allow complete derivatization of taurine within 15 min. DNP-taurine samples are stable for at least 3 days. DNP-taurine was separated by reversed-phase liquid chromatography within 12 s. The recovery of taurine was 102 +/- 3% (S.D. = 2.5%, n = 6) and the detection limit was 10 pmol for taurine (signal-to-noise ratio of 10). The method was applied to the determination of taurine levels in different samples including marine products, infant formulas and fermentation media of different bacterial species.

A rapid assay for neurotransmitter amino acids, aspartate, glutamate, glycine, taurine and ?-aminobutyric acid in the brain by high-performance liquid chromatography with electrochemical detection

For simultaneous assay of the five neurotransmitter amino acids, Asp, Glu, Gly, Tau, and GABA in brain tissues, a very rapid and simple chromatographic method using high-performance liquid chromatography with electrochemical detection in combination with o-phthalaldehyde derivatization is described. Because the present method permits the determination of these five amino acids within less than five minutes in one chromatographic run, up to 100 samples a working day can be analyzed using an autosampler. Within-run coefficients of variation for these five amino acids were less than 2% (n = 20). The quantitative detection limit was 2.5 pmol for the 5 amino acids. The present method has been applied to the measurement of the five amino acid neurotransmitter levels in several discrete brain regions of mice treated with and without electroconvulsive shock.