Makin H L, Heftmann E
Monogr Endocrinol. 1988;30:183-234. doi: 10.1007/978-3-642-83467-7_7.
Although a considerable amount of work has been carried out in the last ten years in developing methods for the separation of steroids by HPLC, it is still not widespread for the reasons discussed above. There is however no doubt that further developments in HPLC technology, in increasing sensitivity and/or specificity of detection systems, perhaps with microbore columns, may lead to an increase in the use of this powerful analytical procedure as an additional separation method to improve specificity of assay. Solution of the problem of simple interfacing of HPLC systems with mass spectrometers (discussed in another chapter by Games) should further increase the application of HPLC. HPLC is of particular value in providing a means of separating unstable compounds prior to assay by relatively nonspecific quantitation methods. Most steroids do not fall into this category, but the steroid vitamin D and its metabolites do and HPLC has proved in this area to be invaluable (see chapter by Jones & DeLuca). There are a multiplicity of different HPLC systems for the separation of steroids, varying in column type (and manufacturer), solvent composition and method of elution, temperature of elution, etc., and only a few attempts have been made to rationalise these data. It would therefore seem that a fruitful area of future study would be the investigation of computerised systems for the selection and optimisation of HPLC systems for particular steroid separations.
尽管在过去十年里，人们在开发高效液相色谱法（HPLC）分离类固醇的方法方面开展了大量工作，但由于上述原因，该方法仍未得到广泛应用。然而，毫无疑问，随着HPLC技术的进一步发展，检测系统的灵敏度和/或特异性不断提高，或许采用微径柱，这一强大的分析方法作为一种额外的分离手段来提高分析特异性的应用可能会增加。解决HPLC系统与质谱仪简单联用的问题（Games在另一章中进行了讨论）应会进一步扩大HPLC的应用。HPLC在通过相对非特异性定量方法进行分析之前提供分离不稳定化合物的手段方面具有特殊价值。大多数类固醇不属于这一类别，但类固醇维生素D及其代谢产物属于此类，并且HPLC在这一领域已被证明具有极高价值（见Jones和DeLuca所著章节）。有多种不同的HPLC系统用于分离类固醇，它们在柱类型（及制造商）、溶剂组成、洗脱方法、洗脱温度等方面各不相同，并且仅有少数尝试对这些数据进行合理化整理。因此，未来一个富有成效的研究领域似乎将是研究用于特定类固醇分离的HPLC系统选择和优化的计算机化系统。
