Determination of adriamycin (doxorubicin) and related fluorescent compounds in rat lymph and gall by high-performance liquid chromatography.

The concentrations of adriamycin (ADM) and related fluorescent compounds in lymph and gall were determined by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) after a single intravenous injection into AH 109A tumour-bearing rats. HPLC was carried out by using Zorbax Sil as the stationary phase and chloroform--isopropanol--acetic acid--water--sodium acetate buffer (pH 4.5) (100:100:14:14:1) as the mobile phase, with a fluorescence spectrophotometric detector at an excitation wavelength of 470 nm and an emission wavelength of 585 nm. The detection limit for ADM was down to 1.0 ng/ml. In the thoracic duct lymph, the concentration of total ADM equivalent values (total ADM values) was maximal 30 min after injection and, after a subsequent decrease, increased gradually from 60 to 180 min. The ratio of total ADM in lymph to that in plasma at 180 min was 1.5 times that at 30 min. In gall, the total ADM showed a maximal level of 20.0 microgram/ml at 30 min.