Simultaneous determination of 16 estrogens, dehydroepiandrosterone and their glucuronide and sulfate conjugates in serum using sodium cholate micelle capillary electrophoresis

The simultaneous determination of 16 estrogens, dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) and their glucuronide and sulfate conjugates by micellar electrokinetic chromatography (MEKC) with sodium cholate micelle is reported. Sodium cholate, sodium dodecylsulfate (SDS) and alpha-, beta-, gamma-cyclodextrins were studied as micelle reagents in the pH range of 7.0-10.0. Estrogens, DHEA and their glucuronide and sulfate conjugates were separated using a 50 cm x 50 pm capillary with 10 mm borate-phosphate buffer (pH 8.0) containing 50 mm sodium cholate as carrier. The method could simultaneously determine 1.0-1000 mug/mL of steroids and metabolites in 100 muL of serum by photometric detection at 214 nm within 14 min and 80 ng/mL steroids could be determined by using 2.0 mL of serum. The relative standards deviations were 6.7-7.7% at 10 mug/mL in serum. The recoveries were 89.1-92.0% with 10 mug/mL serum samples. Copyright (C) 2003 John Wiley Sons, Ltd.