High-performance liquid chromatography of serum lipoproteins

High-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) has been widely used for the separation and analysis of many substances due to the short experimental time, small sample for analysis, high resolution, and excellent reproducibility. A simple and rapid method for lipoprotein analysis has been developed using HPLC with the gel permeation column. A direct quantitation method for cholesterol in each lipoprotein class using a very small amount of intact serum has been developed through a combination of the methods of (1) the separation by HPLC with gel permeation column, and (2) the selective detection of cholesterol in a post column effluent using an enzymatic reaction reagent. The HPLC technique of monitoring lipids in a post column effluent holds promise as a means of serum lipoprotein analysis from the following standpoints: simplicity of procedure, an analysis time of less than one hour, no need for sample pretreatment, small sample amount required (less than 20/μl of intact serum), high resolution, and good reproducibility.