Determination of styrene oxide adducts in mononucleotide dAMP and DNA by capillary zone electrophoresis with ultraviolet detection

A Capillary Zone Electrophoresis (CZE) method has been developed for quanti tative determinations of nucleotides and research on adduct formation in mo nonucleotide dAMP and in hydrolysates of DNA exposed to styrene oxide. The aim of this work was to define an easy-to-implement analytical procedure ad apted to the analysis of low concentrations in the muM range. The effect of pH on mobility was especially studied. The method was then validated using the requirements of the International Conference on Harmonisation in terms of detection limit, linear regression, and repeatability. The use of an ex tended light path capillary for UV detection permitted attainment of a sens itivity level less than 10 pg injected for each nucleotides. The reaction o f styrene oxide with mononucleotide dAMP and DNA was used to optimise the r elevant separation parameters and to gather preliminary information about t he behaviour of the possible adducts formed.