Pharmacokinetic applications of capillary electrophoresis

This review briefly discusses the use of capillary electrophoretic (CE) methods for the investigations of different aspects of pharmacokinetics. In most investigations, CE was the method of choice because of its unique features, including high resolving power for chiral or metabolite separation, small sample volume for pediatric pharmacokinetics or for cell-based investigations, in situ microdialysis sampling for rapid eliminations, low UV wavelength detection for nonderivatized analytes, fast and simplified sample processing for existing methods that require tedious sample preparation, or as a second method for verifications. Moreover, instrumental aspects of CE-based assays for pharmacokinetic studies, such as different modes of CE methods for analyzing biological samples, sample stacking for increasing detection sensitivity, and coupling techniques with microdialysis and mass spectrometry, are also discussed in this review. Furthermore, the advantages and limitations of CE methods as well as the future outlook for pharmacokinetic studies are summarized.