Measurement of theophylline metabolites produced by reaction with hepatic microsome by high performance liquid chromatography following solid phase extraction.

An analytical method has been developed with which to measure the microsomal enzyme activities responsible for oxidative theophylline metabolism. Three metabolites: 3-Methylxanthine (3-MX); 1-methylxanthine (1-MX); 1,3-dimethyluric acid (1,3-DMU), with acetaminophen as an internal standard (IS), were separated by solid phase extraction using a Sep-Pak C18 cartridge, followed by high performance liquid chromatography on a reversed-phase column with isocratic elution using 25 mM acetate buffer containing 4% acetonitrile and 2.5 mM tetra-n-butylammonium hydrogen sulphate (pH 5.25) as the mobile phase. The analytes were clearly resolved and no interference with foreign peaks was observed. A linear relationship was obtained for the metabolites over the concentration range of 0.5-5.0 micrograms/mL, and their analytical recovery was almost 100%. This method can be used to assess drug interactions involving alterations in the biotransformation of theophylline.