Reversed-phase ion-interaction chromatography of leukotrienes, lipoxins and related compounds.

A novel mobile phase containing heptafluorobutyric acid has been used for ion-interaction high-performance liquid chromatography of leukotrienes, lipoxins and related compounds on octadecylsilane silica columns. The use of a hydrophobic perfluorinated carboxylic acid as an ion-interaction agent at optimized concentration and pH permitted rapid, isocratic separation of leukotrienes, lipoxins and monohydroxyeicosatetraenoic acids. A completely volatile mobile phase suitable for preparative chromatography was obtained by using triethylamine as the base for pH adjustment. With this novel mobile phase, leukotrienes and monohydroxyeicosatetraenoic acids were completely separated in less than 15 min.