High-performance liquid chromatographic detection of myocardial prostaglandins and thromboxanes

Reperfusion of ischemic myocardium is associated with the breakdown of membrane phospholipids and a corresponding increase in arachidonic acid, ultimately resulting in the production of prostaglandins (PGs) and thromboxanes (TXs). However, quantification of these arachidonic acid metabolites has been limited to radioimmunoassay because of their presence in extremely low amounts. In this report, we describe a method suitable to detect sub-picogram levels of 6-keto-PGF1 alpha, PGF1 alpha, PGE2 and TXB2 in myocardial perfusates by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) with a high-gain photomultiplier and a xenon-mercury are lamp. Strong Raleigh scatter of the lamp was eliminated by both interference and long-pass cut-off filters. Improved sample clean-up and HPLC separation were achieved by an HPLC system with an Ultrasphere 3-microns C18 column.