Analysis of cholesterol in mouse brain by HPLC with UV detection

PLoS One. 2020 Jan 24;15(1):e0228170. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0228170. eCollection 2020.

Abstract

We describe a sensitive high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC)-based method for the determination of cholesterol in brain tissue. The method does not require the derivatization of the analyte and uses separation and quantification by reversed-phase HPLC coupled to UV detection. Lipids were methanol/chloroform extracted following the method of Bligh and Dyer, and separated using isopropanol/acetonitrile/water (60/30/10, v/v/v) as mobile phase. We observed lineal detection in a wide range of concentrations, from 62.5 to 2000 ng/μL, and were able to detect a significant increase in the brain cholesterol levels between postnatal days 2 and 10 in C57BL6 mice. Based on our validation parameters, we consider this analytical method a useful tool to assess free cholesterol in rodent brain samples and cell cultures.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Brain / metabolism*
  • Cholesterol / analysis*
  • Cholesterol / isolation & purification
  • Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid / methods*
  • Chromatography, Reverse-Phase
  • Limit of Detection
  • Liquid-Liquid Extraction
  • Mice
  • Mice, Inbred C57BL
  • Spectrophotometry, Ultraviolet

Substances

  • Cholesterol

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the Pontifical Catholic University of Argentina. The funder had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.