A Rapid and Simple Thin-Layer Chromatographic Method for Amino Acids in Blood

Abstract

Abstract Simple and rapid thin-layer chromatographic methods, using heel or finger-tip blood, are described that are suitable for screening for inborn errors of amino acid metabolism. Serum is chromatographed without deproteinizing. A variation of this method utilizes blood impregnated on paper discs for chromatography. These methods are much faster, more sensitive, and provide better resolution of amino acids than paper chromatography. Because untreated serum- or blood-impregnated discs are placed directly on thin-layer chromatograms, these methods require considerably less working time than other thin-layer chromatographic methods.