A method for the rapid quantitation of methylated hepatic DNA-purines using high pressure liquid chromatography.

An isocratic high pressure liquid chromatography system that can be employed for the separation and quantitation of four of the major methylated purines commonly found in DNA after exposure to carcinogenic/mutagenic alkylating agents (1-methyladenine, 3-methyladenine, O6-methylguanine and 7-methylguanine) is presented in this paper. Data from experiments in which rats were treated with methyl-N-nitrosourea have been used to illustrate the applicability of the method. The amounts of the methylated bases observed were consistent with values reported in the literature.