The Ion Chromatography Method For The Determination Of Catecholamines

For research in life science, especially neurobiochemistry, the separation and detection of neurotransmitters are important. Catecholamines such as dopa, dopamine, norepinephrine and epinephrine play an important role as neurotransmitters, which can stimulate the nervous system. The changes in concentrations of monoamine transmitters and their metabolites are related to many diseases of human and animals, such as hypertension, Parkinsonism. So the measurement of their concentrations in body fluids is useful for the diseases?diagnosis. It is difficulty to separate and determine catecholamines in biological samples because of its very low concentrations and complex structures. However, the catecholamines can be separated by ion chromatography because of its cation-, and anionion group. In this paper, advances in analytical methods for catecholamines were reviewed with 95 references. The new methods for determining micro-amounts of catecholamine including dopa, dopamine, norepinephrine and epinephrine by ion chromatography with fluorescence detector or electrochemical detector were proposed. The proposed methods were successfully applied to determine catecholamine in medicament and human urine samples.