[Determination of platelet serotonin by high performance liquid chromatography with fluorometric detector]

To establish a simple, rapid and precise method to determine platelet serotonin.

Serotonin (5-hydroxytryptamine; 5-HT) was determined in platelet pellet after simple deproteinization, following ion-pair high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) on reverse-phase column: Nova-pak C18 column (150 mm x 4.6 mm, 4 microm), serotonin and internal standard (N-methylserotonin) were detected by fluorometry.

The intra-day CV was 2.29% and inter-day CV was 3.88%. The mean recovery of serotonin in platelet was 97.5%, the linear range was 20 - 20000 nmol/ L, and the detection limit was 1 nmol/L. 5-hydroxyindole acetic acid (5-HIAA), Trp, Phe and Tyr had no interference with the chromatographic condition used in this trial.

The metod described here is simple, convenient, rapid, sensitive, and accurate for clinical and scientific research.