Determination of methylated amino acids in human serum by high-performance liquid chromatography.

Employing high-performance liquid chromatography with isocratic elution using a two-column system (mu Bondapak C18 and mu Bondapak CN) and phenyl isothiocyanate as a fluorogenic reagent, NG-monomethylarginine (MMA). NG-dimethylarginines, and epsilon-N-trimethyllysine (TML) can be quatitatively separated from human serum samples. The recoveries of these amino acids were over 90%. It was observed that the serum concentrations of MMA, DMA and TML were significantly elevated in sera obtained from patients suffering from diabetes mellitus, hepatitis or hyperthyroidism, particularly the last condition.