Very rapid assay of gamma-aminobutyric acid in mouse brain regions within 3 minutes by high-performance liquid chromatography with electrochemical detection.

For assay of gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) in brain tissue, a very rapid and simple chromatographic procedure using high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) with electrochemical detection (ECD) in combination with precolumn o-phthalaldehyde (OPA) derivatization is described. Perchloric acid extracts of the tissue were mixed with OPA/beta-mercaptoethanol solution and the mixture was injected onto the HPLC system. The present method permits GABA assay within less than 3 min in one chromatographic run. Up to 100 samples a working day can be analyzed in the present method. The present method has been applied to the measurement of GABA levels in discrete brain regions of mice treated with aminooxyacetic acid and isoniazid.