We have developed a simple and accurate isocratic HPLC method, without
any prederivatisation, for the determination of glucose, lactate, glu
tamine, glutamate, pyrrolidone carboxylic acid and alanine in samples
from mammalian cell cultures. The method has been successfully validat
ed with enzyme analysis for each of the compounds. Quantification of p
yrrolidone carboxylic acid makes the correction for glutamine decrease
due to chemical decomposition very simple and accurate, and avoids so
me possibly erroneous calculations.