Determination of hair polyamines as N-ethoxycarbonyl-N-pentafluoropropionyl derivatives by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry

An efficient method is described for the simultaneous determination of hair polyamines, such as 1,3-diaminopropane, putrescine, cadaverine, spermidine and spermine, by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) with the selected ion-monitoring (SIM) mode. The method is based on the extractive two-phase ethoxycarbonyl (EOC) reaction of amino functions in aqueous solutions combined with subsequent pentafluoropropionyl (PFP) derivatization of the remaining active hydrogen atoms for the direct analysis by GC-SIM-MS. The detection limits for SIM of the polyamines as N-EOC-N-PFP derivatives ranged from 1 to 10 ng/g hair, while their recovery rates varied in the range of 76.42-93.38%. This method demonstrated a good overall accuracy (% bias) and precision (% C.V.) as 3.32-11.05% and 5.88-14.71%, respectively. When applied to 0.6 M HCl extracts of hair samples from 11 healthy men and 19 healthy women, all five polyamines were positively detected at the concentrations of 8.82-871.87 ng/g. Both in median and mean concentrations, the most abundant hair polyamine was spermidine, followed by spermine, putrescine, 1,3-diaminopropane and cadaverine in the male group, while the order of 1,3-diaminopropane and cadaverine was reversed in the female group. The levels of polyamines, except for cadaverine, in hair specimens studied were found to be higher in men than in women.

Determination of tetrahydropapaveroline in the urine of parkinsonian patients receiving L-dopa-carbidopa (Sinemet) therapy by high-performance liquid chromatography

Tetrahydropapaveroline (THP) concentrations were measured in the urine of Parkinsonian patients receiving L-dopa-carbidopa (Sinemet) therapy, using a method that employs a separation scheme that selectively isolates THP from urine and utilizes the Pictet-Spengler condensation of THP with formaldehyde combined with high-performance liquid chromatography for identification and determination. The mean (+/- S.D.) recoveries of THP from normal urine with 0.2 pmol/ml added and from Parkinsonian patients' urines with 0.5 pmol/ml added were 48.6 +/- 5.7 and 44.6 +/- 3.1%, respectively. Three Parkinsonian patients who were receiving either 250, 750 or 1000 mg of L-dopa (as Sinemet) daily had 24-h urinary THP excretion levels of 989, 1017 and 1600 pmol, respectively.

Separation of catecholamines and their metabolites by adsorption, ion-pair and soap chromatography

The separation of catecholamines and their metabolites has been carried out by high-performance liquid chromatography using three systems: liquid-solid adsorption, ion-pair partition, and soap chromatography. In the last newly developed technique a reversed-phase packing is used in conjunction with an aqueous organic eluent containing a detergent. The detergent is chosen so that its ion can form ion-pairs with ions of the solutes. Soap chromatography proved the best technique in terms of column efficiency (giving 3000-5000 plates in 125 mm), resolution and sensitivity of detection. Noradrenaline, adrenaline and dopamine, their 3-O-methyl derivatives, L-3,4-dihydroxyphenylalanine, homovanillic acid and other related compounds could be separated in less than 10 min at the 10-50-ng level on columns whose plate heights were in the range of 20-40 mum. The dependence of retention on the concentration of organic modifier and on detergent concentration for three anionic detergents is reported. The method is applied to the direct analysis of urine and the potential of the method for such analyses, especially of pathological urines is demonstrated. Soap chromatography is likely to enlarge the scope of application of high-performance liquid chromatography to biochemical analysis. It is a powerful method for the separation of ionizable compounds which could replace conventional ion-exchange chromatography.