Quantitation of phenacyl esters of retinal fatty acids by high-performance liquid chromatography

A high-performance liquid chromatographic (HPLC) method for the separation and quantitation of retinal fatty acids containing long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids is described. Fatty acids from frog retinal lipids were converted to the corresponding phenacyl derivatives which were separated on a C18 reversed-phase column and detected at 242 nm. Molar absorptivities (peak area units/nmol) of up to seventeen fatty acid phenacyl derivatives were determined and used for quantitation of fatty acids separated by HPLC. Compared with gas chromatography, the HPLC method gave a similar molar percent distribution of the fatty acids and was twenty to fifty times more sensitive. This HPLC method provides a useful means for the study of chemistry and metabolism of long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids in retina and other tissues where amounts of material may be limited or recovery of individual components desirable.