Sensitive isocratic liquid chromatographic assay for the determination of 5,10,15,20-tetra(m-hydroxyphenyl)chlorin in plasma and tissue with electrochemical detection.

A simple extraction procedure and a sensitive high-performance liquid chromatographic (HPLC) method are described for the determination of the photodynamic therapeutic agent 5,10,15,20-tetra(m-hydroxyphenyl)chlorin (mTHPC) in plasma and tumour tissue. Reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography was performed on a C18 column (70 x 4.6 mm I.D.) with a mobile phase of 0.01 M potassium dihydrogenphosphate buffer, pH 2.5-acetonitrile (55:45, v/v) and a coulometric detection (+0.80 V). The mean recoveries of mTHPC in the concentration ranges (5-2000 and 10-1000 ng/ml) were 90 and 89% for plasma and tumour samples, respectively. The procedure for plasma and tissue preparation involved solvent precipitation using methanol combined with ammonia solution and dimethyl sulphoxide (4, 0.2, 0.1, v/v/v) and (2, 0.1, 0.1, v/v/v) for plasma and tissue, respectively. For mTHPC at concentrations ranging from 5 to 2000 ng/ml, the within-day relative standard deviations, based on triplicate determinations were less than 8% and the between-day relative standard deviations calculated by performing extraction procedure of plasma samples on three different days ranged from 3 to 18%. This highly sensitive method, 5 and 10 ng/ml for plasma and tissue respectively, was applied successfully to the determination of mTHPC in mouse tumours for pharmacokinetic studies.