Determination of purine nucleosides and their bases by high-performance liquid chromatography using co-immobilized enzyme reactors.

A selective and sensitive assay of inosine, guanosine, hypoxanthine, guanine and xanthine by high-performance liquid chromatography with immobilized enzyme reactors was developed. The separation was achieved on a Capcell Pak C18 column (15 cm x 0.46 cm I.D.) with a mobile phase of 0.1 M phosphate buffer (pH 8.0) containing 7 mM sodium 1-hexanesulphonate and 0.1 mM p-hydroxyphenylacetic acid. The fluorimetric detection of hydrogen peroxide using immobilized peroxidase and p-hydroxyphenylacetic acid was applied to the assay of these compounds, which were oxidized to yield hydrogen peroxide in the presence of immobilized enzyme (purine nucleoside phosphorylase, guanase and xanthine oxidase). Enzyme reactions occurred sufficiently without post-column addition of reagents. Enzymes that catalysed the conversion of purine compounds were co-immobilized on aminopropyl controlled-pore glass packed in stainless-steel tubing. The detection limits were 30-200 pg per injection.