Simultaneous determination of eleven compounds related to metabolism of bioamines in rat cortex and hippocampus by HPLC-ECD with boron-doped diamond working electrode.

A simple and rapid high-performance liquid chromatography method with electrochemical detection employing boron-doped diamond electrode (BDD) was established for simultaneous determination of eleven bioamines with their precursor amino acids and metabolites, including two precursors (tyrosine and tryptophan), three catecholamines (dopamine, norepinephrine and epinephrine) and their four metabolites (3,4-dihydroxyphenylacetic acid, 3-methoxytyramine, homovanillic acid, and 3-methoxy-4-hydroxyphenylglycol), as well as serotonin and its metabolite (5-hydroxyindoleacetic acid), in a single run of 20 min using vanillic acid as internal standard. The separation was performed on an ODS2 column (250 mm × 4.6 mm, 5.0 μm) with column oven temperature of 30 °C. Quantification was accomplished at an oxidation potential of 700 mV vs Ag/AgCl reference electrode after a range of applied voltages were tested. Several parameters of this new chromatographic method were validated after optimizaton of the analytical conditions. The new method was successfully applied to test cortex and hippocampus samples from Sprague-Dawley rats with good separation. These eleven compounds in cortices and hippocampi were compared, which was used for monitoring their variations in neuroscience research.