Capillary electrophoresis for diagnosis and studies of human disease, particularly metabolic disorders.

High-performance capillary electrophoresis (HPCE) has been used in a multicomponent analytical system designed to diagnose and study human diseases, particularly metabolic disorders. Comparative analyses, using HPCE, high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and an automated amino acid analyser, were carried out on urine and blood samples from patients with homocystinuria, cystinuria, glutathione synthetase deficiency and adenylosuccinase deficiency. HPCE of the sulphur-containing amino compounds, derivatized with monobromobimane and detected by fluorescence spectroscopy, was a quick and simple alternative to classical amino acid analysis. The detection of the characteristic succinylpurines associated with adenylosuccinase defect was equally well achieved with HPLC and HPCE (absorbance detector). Owing to the possible connection between deficiency of taurine (2-amino-1-ethanesulphonic acid) in the heart and the development of cardiomyopathy and heart failure, a simple HPCE method was developed for the determination of taurine in sub-milligram samples of biopsies of the myocardium. The homologue 3-amino-1-propanesulphonic acid was the internal standard, and derivatives of 9-fluorenylmethyl chloroformate and fluorescence detection were used. It is suggested that the potential of HPCE to analyse small volumes should be exploited in biomedicine and clinical diagnosis to analyse sub-milligram samples of tissue biopsies and cells.