Determination of D- and L-amino acids in mouse kidney by high-performance liquid chromatography

A method for the enantiomeric analysis of amino acids of mammalian tissues is described. An excellent resolution of D- and L-enantiomers of common protein amino acids was achieved by employing a combination of thin-layer chromatography and high-performance liquid chromatography. D-Enantiomers and L-enantiomers of glutamate, aspartate, glutamine, asparagine, serine, threonine, alanine, proline, tyrosine, valine, methionine, isoleucine, leucine, phenylalanine and histidine, as well as glycine were derivatized with 1-fluoro-2,4-dinitrophenyl-5-L-alanine amide. The amino acid diastereomers were separated by two-dimensional thin-layer chromatography. Each amino acid diastereomer was then analysed by reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography for the resolution of D- and L-enantiomers. Very sharp peaks were obtained using a conventional octadecylsilyl-bonded column, and the possibility of analysing these amino acids (except tyrosine and histidine) in subnanomole amounts was indicated. The method was used to demonstrate the presence of D-enantiomers of alanine, proline and serine in mouse kidney.