title: Automated high performance liquid chromatography with on-line reduction of disulfides and chemiluminescence detection for determination of thiols and disulfides in biological fluids.
abstract: In general, the reduction of disulfide bonds with tris(2-carboxyethyl)phosphine (TCEP) is performed using off-line operation, which is not only time-consuming but also vulnerable to the spontaneous re-oxidation of thiols during sample preparation and subsequent analysis procedures. To the best of our knowledge, there has been not any case on the on-line reduction for biological disulfides coupled with high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). In this study, these obstacles are overcome by packing Zn(II)-TCEP complexes into a home-made column. The as-synthesized Zn(II)-TCEP complexes enable efficient reduction of disulfide bonds at pH 3.0. This acidic pH value was compatible with that of the mobile phase for HPLC separation of thiols and disulfides. Therefore, using fluorosurfactant-prepared triangular gold nanoparticles as HPLC postcolumn specific chemiluminescence (CL) reagents for thiols, the feasibility of the established on-line reduction column has been confirmed for the direct identification of both thiols and disulfides by incorporating this reduction column into a single chromatographic separation. Detection limits for these analytes range from 8.3 to 25.4 nM and the linear range in a log-log plot can comprise three orders of magnitude. Finally, the utility of this automated on-line reduction of disulfides-HPLC-CL system has been demonstrated for the reliable determination of thiols and disulfides in human urine and plasma samples.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Chemical Resource Engineering, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, Beijing 100029, China.
authors.forename: Shouli
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Bai
authors.forename: Qingshuo
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Chao
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Lu
authors.forename: Jin-Ming
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Lin
mesh_terms: D001331:Automation; D002851:Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D056831:Coordination Complexes / Q000737:chemistry; D004220:Disulfides / Q000032:analysis* / Q000097:blood / Q000652:urine; D017022:Flow Injection Analysis; D006801:Humans; D008163:Luminescent Measurements; D010084:Oxidation-Reduction; D010720:Phosphines / Q000737:chemistry; D013438:Sulfhydryl Compounds / Q000032:analysis* / Q000097:blood / Q000652:urine; D015032:Zinc / Q000737:chemistry
chemical_list: D056831:Coordination Complexes; D004220:Disulfides; D010720:Phosphines; D013438:Sulfhydryl Compounds; D015032:Zinc; C080938:tris(2-carboxyethyl)phosphine