The objectives of this study were to design and validate a method for the assay of coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10) in human plasma and to evaluate the stability of CoQ10 in several conditions currently observed for routine determinations. CoQ10 was extracted from plasma with n-hexane after dissociation from lipoproteins with methanol. Ethoxy-CoQ10 was used as internal standard. CoQ10 was isolated and then quantitated by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) using a binary gradient. Linearity (r = 0.9999), recovery (97 %) and intra- and inter-run precision (1.7 and 2.0 % respectively) appeared to be satisfactory. The stability of CoQ10 in crude plasma was tested under various conditions (i.e. six hours at room temperature, freezing and thawing, storage for up to 24 weeks at −20 °C), the stability of CoQ10 in n-hexane extracts was also tested (24 hours in autosampler rack at room temperature). CoQ10 content was found to be unaffected by any of the tested conditions.
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