High-performance liquid chromatographic determination of catecholamines, serotonin and their metabolites with three-potential electrochemical detection

A new method of high-performance liquid chromatographic three-potential electrochemical detection was developed and applied for determining DA, DOPA, NE, E, 3MT, DOPAC, HVA, MHPG, DEP, 5HT and 5HIAA in rat-brain tissue. The proposed method employed a coulometric electrochemical detector coupled with a conditioning cell and a dual-electrode analytic cell. Three individual potentials were applied to the electrodes in order to oxidize-reduce the analytes. This detection system could effectively avoid interfering substance peaks, and could accurately quantify eleven components of catecholamines and serotonin as well as metabolites. The present method showed normal linearity with quantity injection of the standards; the detection limit was 0.17 - 1.22 pg for all analytes of interest. In a measurement of neuroamines in rat-brain, the recovery of all target components averaged 74.5%.