Determination of agmatine in brain and plasma using high-performance liquid chromatography with fluorescence detection

1997; Elsevier BV; Volume: 691; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1016/s0378-4347(96)00458-6

ISSN

1872-812X

Autores

Yangzheng Feng, Angelos Halaris, John E. Piletz,

Tópico(s)

Pharmacological Effects and Assays

Resumo

Decarboxylated arginine, agmatine, is a neurotransmitter candidate for imidazoline receptors. A method is described to measure agmatine in rat brain and human plasma by isocratic high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) with flourescence detection and o-phthalaldehyde derivatization. Quantitation is based on the method of additions of internal agmatine spikes. This assay has sensitivity in the low picomole range and a detection limitof 100 fmol. The correlation coefficient for the agmatine standard curve was 0.999±0.001 S.D., and intra- and inter-assay C.V.s were less than 8%. The accuracy of our isocratic method compared favorably with a gradient HPLC protocol, originally developed for bacterial agmatine, which we modified for use with tissues. Agmatine concentrations in rat brain were proportioned similarly to the regional distribution of imidazoline-1 receptors. These methods can be used as reliable research tools in various biological samples.

Referência(s)