Determination of monoamine transmitters and tyrosine in biological samples by capillary electrophoresis with electrochemical detection

Capillary electrophoresis (CE) has been employed for the separation of monoamine transmitters (MAs) and tyrosine (Tyr), combined with electrochemical detection (ED) at a carbon disc electrode. The effects of several factors such as the acidity and concentration of running buffer, the separation voltage, the potential applied to the working electrode and the injection time were investigated to find the optimum conditions. Detection limits (S/N=3) ranged from 48.8 to 315.4 nmol·L−1, and the response was linear over 3 order of magnitude for MAs and Tyr. The proposed method was successfully applied to determine MAs and Tyr in the cerebral cortex, thalamus and spinal cord of rats with satisfactory assay results.