Recent Applications of Gas Chromatography in Bioanalysis

Abstract

Bioanalysis involves a broad range of chemical analyzes. These analyzes include that of biotics, such as natural components of living organisms, as well as xenobiotics, such as drugs and their metabolites in biological systems. Because many biotics and xenobiotics are not volatile molecules, the main technique for bioanalysis is high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and the limitation of GC utilization is caused by the fact that GC is applicable only to volatile samples. However, gas chromatography (GC) in particular coupled with mass spectrometry (MS) as detection is also a very useful technique in bioanalysis. A considerable number of analytes in bioanalysis are volatile or can be made volatile following, for example, derivatization. As a result, GC (and GC/MS) are commonly utilized for the analysis of biotics, such as amino acids, fatty acids, various metabolites in biological fluids, and in particular of a large number of xenobiotics, such as drugs, drug metabolites, toxicants, and certain metabolic compounds caused by toxicants. The chapter will present progress in the GC methodology for extending its applicability to bioanalysis and will provide a review of more recent applications.