On-line concentration and determination of all-trans- and 13-cis- retinoic acids in rabbit serum by application of sweeping technique in micellar electrokinetic chromatography

Determination of phthalic acid esters in Chinese white spirit using dispersive liquid-liquid microextraction coupled with sweeping β-cyclodextrin-modified micellar electrokinetic chromatography

A simple method that consumes low organic solvent is proposed for the analysis of phthalic acid esters in Chinese white spirit using dispersive liquid-liquid microextraction coupled with sweeping-micellar electrokinetic chromatography. Tetrachloromethane and white-spirit-containing ethanol were used as the extraction and dispersing solvents, respectively. The electrophoresis separation buffer was composed of 5 mM β-cyclodextrin, 50 mM sodium dodecyl sulfate and 25 mM borate buffer (pH 9.2) with 9% acetonitrile, enabling the baseline resolution of the analytes within 13 min. Under the optimum conditions, satisfactory linearities (5-1000 ng/mL, r ≥ 0.9909), good reproducibility (RSD ≤ 6.7% for peak area, and RSD ≤ 2.8% for migration time), low detection limits (0.4-0.8 ng/mL) and acceptable recovery rates (89.6-105.7%) were obtained. The proposed method was successfully applied to 22 Chinese white spirits, and the content of dibutyl phthalate in 55% of the samples exceeded the Specific Migration Limit of 0.3 mg/kg established by the domestic and international regulations.

A new approach to highly sensitive determination of retinoic acid isomers by preconcentration with CdSe quantum dots

Unusual amounts of retinoic acid (RA) isomers play an important role in abnormal morphological development of mammals; such as rat embryos. Each isomer of RA has a unique function in first steps of embryonic life. In the current study, a new method for preconcentration and simultaneous determination of all-trans retinoic acid, 13-cis retinoic acid, 9-cis retinoic acid and 9,13-di-cis retinoic acid in rat whole rudimentary embryo culture (RWEC) has been developed. RA isomers were extracted from samples by conjugation to appropriate amount of surface modified CdSe quantum dots (QDs) prior to HPLC/UV determination. In order to quickly release of the analytes with unchanged form, separated RA-QD conjugation were irradiated by intensive near infrared wavelength (NIR). Low energy NIR irradiation results in maintaining the primary forms of RA isomers during the release. The conjugation and release mechanisms were described and experimental parameters were investigated in detail. Under optimized conditions, the method was linear in the range of 0.040-34.600 pmol g(-1) for all-trans RA (R(2)=0.9996), 0.070-34.200 pmol g(-1) for 13-cis RA (R(2)=0.9992), 0.050-35.300 pmol g(-1) for 9,13-di-cis RA (R(2)=0.9998) and 0.050-32.900 pmol g(-1) for 9-cis RA (R(2)=0.9990). The present method can be useful for retinoic acid monitoring in clinical studies.

Study of atypical kinetic behaviour of cytochrome P450 2C9 isoform with diclofenac at low substrate concentrations by sweeping-MEKC combination

In view of the fact that several studies have shown that diclofenac hydroxylation by cytochrome P450 2C9 deviated from Michaelis-Menten kinetics at low substrate concentrations, sweeping combined with MEKC was applied for the kinetic study of this pharmacologically important reaction. A 50  μm fused silica capillary (56  cm effective length) was used to carry out all separations. 70  mM SDS in 20  mM phosphate 20  mM tetraborate buffer, pH 8.6, was used as the BGE. Injection was accomplished by the application of 50  mbar (5  kPa) pressure to the sample vial for 52  s. Separation was performed at 22  kV (positive polarity), with a capillary temperature of 25°C and detection at 200  nm. The higher sensitivity of the sweeping-MEKC combination compared with the simple MEKC method enabled this reaction to be fitted to a Hill kinetic model and confirmed the findings of other authors. A Michaelis constant of 2.91±0.10  μM, maximum reaction velocity of 9.16±0.16  nmol/min/nmol and Hill coefficient of 1.66±0.08 were determined. This value of Hill coefficient confirms the presence of a positive cooperativity at low diclofenac concentrations and supports the hypothesis of two substrates binding at or near the active site.

Contemporary sample stacking in CE

Sample stacking techniques remain an important tool for enhancement of the selectivity and sensitivity of analyses in contemporary CZE. This contribution reviews new knowledge on this topic published since 2006. It is organized according to the operational principles used, which include concentration adjustment, application of a pH step, MEKC and sweeping, and transient ITP. Techniques combining several of these principles and comparative studies are also included.