EFFECT OF DIFFERENT SURFACTANTS ON THE SEPARATION BY MICELLAR ELECTROKINETIC CHROMATOGRAPHY OF A COMPLEX MIXTURE OF DIPEPTIDES IN URINE OF PROLIDASE-DEFICIENT PATIENTS

Prolidase deficiency is a severe disorder characterized by massive exc retion of metabolites with closely related structures. At present, mic ellar electrokinetic chromatography is the separation method which pro vides the highest selectivity of structurally similar solutes. However , the structure of a surfactant can greatly affect the selectivity of separation depending on factors such as the length of hydrophobic alky l chain or the nature of the hydrophilic group. Here we investigated t he effect of three non-ionic and four anionic detergents for obtaining the best separation conditions for resolving imidodipeptide mixtures. The effect on resolution of variables such as temperature, surfactant concentrations and organic solvents was also examined. The greatest r esolution was obtained at the lowest temperature studied (10 degrees C ) using 50 mM sodium berate, pH 9.3 containing 50 mM pentanesulfonate and 10% (v/v) methanol. Under these experimental conditions almost all excreted components were baseline separated and identified. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science B.V.