DETERMINATION OF THE AMINO-ACID NEUROTRANSMITTERS IN THE DORSAL-ROOT GANGLION OF THE RAT BY CAPILLARY ELECTROPHORESIS WITH A LASER-INDUCED FLUORESCENCE-CHARGE COUPLED DEVICE

A sensitive, rapid and accurate analysis of the amino acid neurotransm itters in dorsal root ganglion (DRG) of rat was accomplished by capill ary electrophoresis with a laser-induced fluorescence-charged coupled device (LIF-CCD) and fluorescein isothiocyanate (FITC) derivatization. Since the CCD is an image detector with a matrix array of photoelemen ts, the photogenerated charge generated from single photoelements was summed up by on-chip charge binning, and used to improve the detection sensitivity. A self-compiled data processing program was used to calc ulate digitally the summation of the multiwavelength data and transfor m three-dimensional electropherograms into two-dimensional electropher ograms. Use of this program improved the detection sensitivity, the ex traction of useful statistical data and the performance of the quantit ative analysis. Owing to its excellent detectability and the unique ch aracteristic of its two-dimensional format, which allows to perform an alog and digital summation, high detection sensitivity with detection limits ranging from 1.2 to 17.2 nM was obtained for the amino acid neu rotransmitters by LIF-CCD. This method was demonstrated to be a powerf ul tool for analyzing the complex biological samples through quantitat ive determination of the six amino acid neurotransmitters in the DRG o f rat. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V.