Sphingosine determination at the picomole level using dimethylaminoazobenzene sulphonyl chloride

A sensitive method (lower detection limit 5 picomoles) is proposed for the determination of sphingoid bases liberated from mammalian glycosphingolipids by acid hydrolysis. The azo dye 4-dimethylaminoazobenzene-4'-sulfonyl chloride reacts with the primary amino group of the sphingosine bases, forming a stable derivative. Excess reagent, which is degraded during the derivatization, and free amino sugars as common hydrolysis products of glycosphingolipids are completely separated by reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography. This method was applied to the determination of the glycosphingolipid content of mouse spleen and thymus.