Application of HPLC method for the measurement of hyaluronan in pleural fluid--a new alternative of cellulose acetate membrane electrophoresis]

We examined whether high-performance liquid chromatography(HPLC) method was more suitable for the measurement of hyaluronan(HA) in pleural fluid than the standardized electrophoretical method. Forty-four samples of pleural fluid were measured both by the HPLC method and by the electrophoretical method. The HA values measured by the HPLC method did not show significant correlation(r = 0.33) to those measured by the electrophoretical method. We investigated the reason of this insufficiency of the correlation. The electrophoretical method was not specific for the measurement of HA and other glycosaminoglycan, such as chondroitin could be measured by this method. Therefore, the HA value measured by this method was higher than that measured by the HPLC method. The other problem was some loss of HA during the pre-treatment of samples with percloric acid in the electrophoretical method, which was needless in the HPLC method. We concluded that the HPLC method was more appropriate than the electrophoretical method for the measurement of hyaluronan in pleural fluid.