Improved ultra-high performance liquid chromatographic method for simultaneous determination of five gout-related metabolites in human serum

Creatinine and purines are gout-related metabolites commonly quantified by liquid chromatography coupled with ultraviolet and mass spectrometry. However, the high cost of liquid chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry hindered its extensive use in ordinary hospitals and clinical laboratories. Using the traditional liquid chromatography method, the full separation of these metabolites in complex biological samples is still not achieved. In this study, an improved ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography with ultraviolet spectroscopy method was reported for quantitative determination of five gout-related metabolites (i.e., creatinine, uric acid, hypoxanthine, xanthine, and inosine) in human serum within 10 min. A UHPLC system equipped with a hydrophilic C18 column was used to improve separation, shorten analysis time, and increase analysis throughput. The performance of the method was validated by evaluating linearity (squared correlation coefficient > 0.9991), recovery (92.8–100.0%, with relative standard deviation < 4.7%), accuracy (relative errors < 14.6%), precision (0.2-4.1% for intraday and 2.1-7.3% for interday) and stability (-14.1 to 8.3% in autosampler for 12 h and -13.3 to 2.2% for freeze-thaw cycles). This method was successfully applied to quantify gout-related metabolites in serum samples of healthy controls and gout patients, which was expected to be used in the clinical investigation of gout at different stages.