Improved separation of radioactively labelled cellular phospholipids by high-performance liquid chromatography.

An improved high-performance liquid chromatographic method for the separation and determination of radioactively labelled cellular phospholipids is described. The method is based on separation of phospholipids on a 250 x 4 mm I.D. LiChrospher DIOL 100 (5 microns) column, fitted with a 50 x 4 mm I.D. LiChrospher Si 60 (5 microns) precolumn and a gradient of 5% H3PO4 and acetonitrile. It allows the determination of small amounts of labelled phosphatidylcholine and sphingomyelin due to the sharp elution profile in spite of long retention times.