Separation and determination of structurally related free bile acids by pressurized capillary electrochromatography coupled to laser induced fluorescence detection

Abstract

A sensitive pressurized capillary electrochromatography-laser induced fluorescence detection (pCEC-LIF) method has been developed for the simultaneous analysis of five structurally related free bile acids including cholic acid (CA) and lithocholic acid (LCA), as well as the stereoisomers of chenodeoxycholic acid (CDCA), deoxycholic acid (DCA) and ursodeoxycholic acid (UDCA). 4-nitro-7-N-piperazino-2,1,3-benzoxadiazole (NBD-PZ) was used for the precolumn derivatization of non-chromogenic free bile acids to form strongly fluorescent adducts. Efficient separation of these derivatization products was performed within 17 min by isocratic elution pCEC on an octadecyl silica (ODS) packed capillary column, using a mobile phase consisting of acetonitrile and 10 mM CAPS buffer (pH 8.0) (60 : 40 v/v), 20 kV of applied voltage and 10.8 MPa of supplementary pressure. The derivatized bile acids could be determined by a LIF detector at an excitation wavelength of 473 nm and an emission wavelength of 530 nm, with detection limits (signal/noise = 3) down to 2 nmol L⁻¹. Applicability of this pCEC-LIF method to the analysis of human serum samples was demonstrated. Accepted recoveries ranging between 94.8% and 109.7% for all analytes in spiked human serum samples were achieved. This method has potential for the trace analysis of physiologically important acidic analogs.