An Improved Method for Fluorimetric Determination of Small Amounts of Adrenaline and Noradrenaline in Plasma and Tissues

Abstract

Abstract H äggendal , J. An improved method for fluorimetric determination of small amounts of adrenaline and noradrenaline in plasma and tissues . Acta physiol. scand. 1963. 59 . 242–254. — By the introduction of several modifications of the trihydroxyindole method for the determination of adrenaline and noradrenaline appreciable improvement of the sensitivity has been obtained. The blank values have been considerably reduced and stabilized by substituting dimercaptopropanol (BAL) in sodium sulfite solution for ascorbic acid. The eluate volume has been reduced and the degree of purification has been increased by a modified ion‐exchange procedure (Dowex 50 W‐X8). Deproteinization of plasma before the column procedure could be omitted. When this procedure was applied to 10 ml plasma obtained from normal persons at rest, noradrenaline spectra, with two activation peaks, were usually obtained. The average concentration of the noradrenaline was 0.3 ± 0.11 μ g per litre of plasma. Normally no adrenaline was found. Noradrenaline occurred in plasma in both free and conjugated form.