title: High-performance liquid chromatographic assay for the alpha-melanotropin[4,10] fragment analogue (Melanotan-II) in rat plasma.
abstract: A high-performance liquid chromatographic (HPLC) procedure has been developed for the quantification of Melanotan-II (MT-II), a cyclic heptapeptide which promotes rapid tanning of the skin, in rat plasma. The method involves precipitation of plasma proteins followed by direct-injection HPLC with ultraviolet detection. Calibration curves were linear over the range 100-1000 ng/ml for rat plasma. The method is reproducible and reliable with a detection limit of 50 ng/ml in plasma. Within- and between-day precision and accuracy reported as coefficient of variation and relative error, respectively, were < 7%. The application of the assay was successfully demonstrated by quantifying the concentration of MT-II in rat plasma samples following an intravenous dose of 0.3 mg/kg.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, College of Pharmacy, University of Arizona, Tucson 85721.
authors.forename: S O
authors.initials: SO
authors.lastname: Ugwu
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Blanchard
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D002851:Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid / Q000379:methods*; D008297:Male; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010446:Peptide Fragments / Q000097:blood*; D010456:Peptides, Cyclic / Q000097:blood*; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D013056:Spectrophotometry, Ultraviolet; D000521:alpha-MSH / Q000031:analogs & derivatives* / Q000097:blood
chemical_list: D010446:Peptide Fragments; D010456:Peptides, Cyclic; C079282:melanotan-II; D000521:alpha-MSH