Separation of Key Biogenic Amines by Capillary Electrophoresis and Determination of Possible Indicators of Sport Fatigue in Athlete's Urine.

This article aims to build up a simple, rapid and accurate capillary zone electrophoresis (CZE) method for the separation of biogenic amines (BAs). Here, 10 key BAs (phenethylamine, histamine, tryptamine, tyramine, 5-hydroxytryptamine, octopamine, dopamine, norepinephrine, epinephrine and carnosine) owning significant functions were chosen for method development. The baseline separation and identification of 10 standards of the mixture by CZE were eventually achieved in 150.0 mmol/L phosphate buffer (Na2HPO4-NaH2PO4) containing 1.0 mmol/L borax at a pH of 6.1. The addition of borax was found effective for improving the isomeric separation of octopamine and dopamine. The proposed method allowed the limits of detections of BAs to be in the range of 0.2-1.2 µmol/L at UV detection (200 nm); the relative standard deviation of the migration time and the peak area were in the ranges 0.08-0.12 and 2.74-4.63% (n = 5), respectively. Formaldehyde (a possible antiseptic in urine) and five main matrices in urine were studied for the identification of BAs. Finally, profiling of BAs in actual urine from athletes was carried out. Currently, only phenethylamine, norepinephrine and carnosine were designated by spiking the standards. In addition, their variation in athletes' urine has been checked at different states of sport fatigue with the goal of obtaining possible indicators of sport fatigue.