title: Determination of 5-aminolaevulinic acid and porphobilinogen by high-performance liquid chromatography.
abstract: A strong anion-exchange column coupled to a strong cation-exchange column with acetate buffer as eluent or reversed-phase ion-pair chromatography on octadecylsilica with methanol-water containing 1-heptanesulphonic acid as the mobile phase is described for the simultaneous separation of 5-aminolaevulinic acid and porphobilinogen. The separation is applied to the development of a fast and simple method for determining the activity of the enzyme aminolaevulinic acid dehydrase in human erythrocytes. 5-Aminolaevulinic acid is used as the enzyme substrate and the enzyme activity is expressed as micromoles of porphobilinogen formed per ml of erythrocytes in 1 h at 38 degrees. 5-Aminolaevulinic acid and porphobilinogen can also be separated from the urine of prophyric patients but the UV detector has insufficient sensitivity for the determination of 5-aminolaevulinic acid.
mesh_terms: D000622:Aminolevulinic Acid / Q000032:analysis* / Q000652:urine; D000818:Animals; D002851:Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid / Q000379:methods*; D004912:Erythrocytes / Q000032:analysis / Q000201:enzymology; D007982:Levulinic Acids / Q000032:analysis*; D011162:Porphobilinogen / Q000032:analysis* / Q000652:urine; D000623:Porphobilinogen Synthase / Q000032:analysis / Q000378:metabolism; D011164:Porphyrias / Q000652:urine
chemical_list: D007982:Levulinic Acids; D011162:Porphobilinogen; D000622:Aminolevulinic Acid; D000623:Porphobilinogen Synthase