NMR-monitored solid-phase extraction of phenolphthalein glucuronide on phenylboronic acid and C18 bonded phases.

Preliminary studies have been undertaken to evaluate the potential of immobilized phenylboronic acid (PBA) for the solid-phase extraction (SPE) of glucuronide metabolites from urine. These studies have demonstrated that immobilized PBA can be used to specifically extract phenolphthalein glucuronide (5 mM) from urine. Urine samples were loaded onto the PBA SPE column in glycine buffer (pH 8.5) and were eluted using methanol-1% HCl (90:10, v/v). The overall recoveries of the phenolphthalein glucuronide for this procedure were high (99%), which compared well with similar studies carried out concomitantly on C18 bonded columns (93%).

Lipophilic impurities, not phenolsulfonphthalein, account for the estrogenic activity in commercial preparations of phenol red.

Previously, we found that Phenol Red, a pH indicator dye commonly used in tissue culture media, had weak estrogenic activity, demonstrable by competitive binding to the estrogen receptor, stimulation of the growth rate of human breast cancer (MCF-7) cells, and elevation of progesterone receptor levels in these cells. We have now examined in more detail the source of this estrogenic activity, present in commercially available preparations of Phenol Red. By high performance liquid chromatography and solvent partitioning, we find that the receptor binding and growth promoting activity does not correspond to the indicator dye itself (phenolsulfonphthalein), but rather to more lipophilic impurities present in these preparations. There are numerous such impurities, many of which show some competitive binding activity, but the major receptor binding activity is accounted for by a single impurity component. Commercial preparations of Phenol Red can be purified by ether extraction of the sodium salt, whereby 95-99% of the lipophilic estrogenic impurities are removed, and the growth stimulating activity towards MCF-7 cells is reduced.