Abstract: ObjectiveTo study the effect of testing amino acids levels in brain microdialysate by method of high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) with α-aminobutyric acid (AABA) as the internal standard.MethodsReversed phase high performance liquid chromatography (RP-HPLC), orthophthaladehyde (OPA) precolumn derivatization method and fluorescence detector were used. The separation was performed using an ODS-C18 column. AABA, an isomeric compound of GABA, served as the internal standard, phosphate buffer solution and methanol as the mobile phase, gradient elution lasted in 35 min.Results7 kinds of amino acids and internal standard were separated completely. The mean recovery of amino acid was 88.2%—102.3%. The mean correlation coeffeicient of the linear relationship was 0.998±0.0015.Limits of detection for amino acids were 1.0—8.6 ppm respectively.ConclusionThe method mentioned above is simple and sensitive for operation, and can be used for determined levels of amino acids in microdialysate.

Key words: amino acids, high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), microdialysis, α-aminobutyric acid (AABA)