Fast, microbore, and fast microbore high-performance liquid chromatography of nucleic acid constituents.

Fast high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) (5-10 cm X 4.6 mm I.D. columns), microbore HPLC (25 cm X 2.1 mm and 1 mm I.D. columns), and fast microbore HPLC (5-10 cm X 2.1 mm and 1 mm I.D. columns) were successfully applied to the separation of nucleic acid constituents in standard mixtures and physiological fluids. Separations were obtained in isocratic and gradient elution modes. The separations obtained were compared with those achieved on a conventional 25 cm X 4.6 mm I.D. column. Factors evaluated included separation time, retention time reproducibility, peak height reproducibility, resolution, efficiency, sensitivity and linear response range. Practical factors, such as the amount of sample required and cost per analysis, were also examined.