Quantitative microanalysis of bile acids in biological samples. Collaborative study.

Abstract

The analysis of bile acids in biological samples has always presented a problem because of their complex nature and low concentration. Recently, newer analytical procedures for bile acids have become available, including enzymatic analysis, radioimmunoassay, thin-layer chromatography (TLC), gas chromatography, high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) with selected ion monitoring (SIM). However, they differ greatly with respect to specificity, sensitivity, accuracy and simplicity. On the other hand, the choice of analytical procedure differs according to the specific aims and the nature of biological samples to be analysed. These newer procedures have been compared in a double-blind fashion by distributing bile, plasma and urine samples to seven participating laboratories. GC-MS-SIM was found to be the most sensitive and reliable, but it requires other procedures for preliminary clean-up and fractionation steps. Enzymatic analysis is simple and gives small analytical errors but tends to over-estimate plasma bile acids. Radioimmunoassay gives variable results but is useful as a screening procedure for large numbers of plasma samples. TLC gives reliable results for biliary bile acids in experienced hands, except for differentiation between conjugated dihydroxycholanoic acids. HPLC, whether using derivatization or with fixed 3 alpha-hydroxy steroid dehydrogenase detection, is suitable for the analysis of major bile acids in normal human serum but not for the identification of unknown minor peaks.