Measurement of vitamin E in premature infants by reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography

Simple high-performance liquid chromatographic method for the determination of tocotrienols in human plasma

A simple high-performance liquid chromatographic method using fluorescence detection was developed for the determination of vitamin E especially delta-, gamma- and alpha-tocotrienols in human plasma. The method entailed direct injection of plasma sample after deproteinization using a 3:2 mixture of acetonitrile-tetrahydrofuran. The mobile phase comprised 0.5% (v/v) of distilled water in methanol. Analyses were run at a flow-rate of 1.5 ml/min with the detector operating at an excitation wavelength of 296 nm and emission wavelength of 330 nm. This method is specific and sensitive, with a quantification limit of approximately 40, 34 and 16 ng/ml for alpha-, gamma- and delta-tocotrienol, respectively. The mean absolute recovery values were about 98% while the within-day and between-day relative standard deviation and percent error values of the assay method were all less than 12.0% for alpha-, gamma- and delta-tocotrienol. The calibration curve was linear over a concentration range of 40-2500, 30-4000 and 16-1000 ng/ml for alpha-, gamma- and delta-tocotrienol, respectively. Application of the method in a bioavailability study for determination of the above compounds was also demonstrated.

Simple high-performance liquid chromatographic method for determination of alpha-tocopherol in human plasma

A simple high-performance liquid chromatographic method using UV detection was developed for the determination of alpha-tocopherol in human plasma. The method entailed direct injection of the plasma sample after deproteinization using acetonitrile-tetrahydrofuran (3:2). The mobile phase comprised methanol-tetrahydrofuran (94:6) and analysis was run at a flow-rate of 1.5 ml/min with the detector operating at 292 nm. A Crestpak C18S (5 microm, 250 mm x 4.6 mm ID) was used for the chromatographic separation. The method had a mean recovery of 93%, while the within-day and between-day coefficients of variation and percentage errors were all less than 7%. The speed, specificity, sensitivity and reproducibility of this method make it particularly suitable for routine determination of alpha-tocopherol in human plasma. Moreover, only a small sample plasma volume (100 microl) is required for the analysis.

Two high performance liquid chromatographic methods for the determination of alpha-tocopherol in serum compared to isotope dilution-gas chromatography-mass spectrometry

Two high performance liquid chromatographic methods (HPLC) with isocratic reversed-phase separation are presented for the determination of alpha-tocopherol (vitamin E) in serum. In the first method alpha-tocopherol acetate is used as internal standard, detection of absorbance is performed at 284 nm. In the second method tocol is used as internal standard, detection of fluorescence is performed with an excitation wavelength of 292 nm and emission wavelength of 325 nm. Both methods require a liquid-liquid extraction as sample preparation. The results of both HPLC methods have been tested by method comparison for n = 25 serum samples versus an isotope dilution-gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (ID-GC-MS) method using alpha-tocopherol-d6 as internal standard. The imprecision within-run was lower than 2.5% for the UV method and lower than 1% for the fluorescence method for both standards and serum pools. The between-run imprecision, obtained for serum pools, was below 5% for the UV method and not higher than 1.5% for the fluorescence method and not higher 1.8% for the ID-GC-MS. Recovery experiments performed by spiking pool sera with alpha-tocopherol showed recoveries between 98.5% and 100.6% for all methods studied. The result of the method comparison was a coefficient of correlation of r = 0.998 for the HPLC method with fluorescence detection to the ID-GC-MS reference method and a coefficient of correlation of r = 0.981 for the HPLC method with UV detection to the ID-GC-MS reference method. Both methods presented are useful for the analysis of alpha-tocopherol in patient samples. If detection of fluorescence is used, imprecision and inaccuracy of the HPLC method are comparable to the ID-GC-MS chosen as reference method.

Placental transfer and tissue distribution of vitamin E in pregnant rabbits

alpha-Tocopherol (vitamin E) is widely prescribed in neonatal intensive care units, in large doses and by different schedules, for the prevention of retrolental fibroplasia, intraventricular haemorrhage, bronchopulmonary dysplasia, and haemolytic anaemia. Since the efficacy of the drug in premature newborns seems related to early administration, the physicochemical characteristics of the drug itself and available formulations limit the major therapeutic aim of promptly raising levels of vitamin E in premature babies during the early hours of life. It has thus been suggested that vitamin E be given to the mother before delivery to produce higher drug concentrations in the newborn. To see whether this would work, the tissue distribution and transplacental transfer of vitamin E were studied in six pregnant rabbits at steady-state after an i.v. bolus + infusion to give a mean venous blood concentration of about 325 mumol l-1 of alpha-tocopherol acetate, corresponding to about 30 mumol l-1 of alpha-tocopherol. Endogenous levels were measured in six control pregnant rabbits. In treated animals alpha-tocopherol was increased in liver, spleen, placenta, lung, mammary gland, blood, and bile but not in brain, heart, fat, muscle or adrenals probably because distribution into these tissues is very slow. Vitamin E levels in the placenta of treated mothers were 15 times those of control rabbits, but the vitamin was not detectable in amniotic fluid and only very low levels were found in fetal blood. These findings do not indicate any advantage of giving mothers alpha-tocopherol acetate before delivery.