Separation of substrates and closely related glucuronide metabolites using various chromatographic modes

• 10 substrates and their polar metabolites produced by glucuronidation were analyzed by various chromatographic approaches.
• The performance of RPLC, HILIC, ANPC and SFC was compared for these set of model compounds.
• The elution of glucuronide metabolites was possible in SFC at very high MeOH proportion.
• A very good complementarity was demonstrated between all the chromatographic modes.
• All isomeric and diastereoisomeric glucuronides were successfully separated at least by one chromatographic approach.

The aim of this study was to assess the retention and selectivity of a cocktail of 10 substrates of uridine diphosphate glucuronosyltransferase enzymes (UGTs) and their respective glucuronides using four chromatographic approaches. For this purpose, seven different stationary phases were employed in reversed phase liquid chromatography (RPLC), two in hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography (HILIC), one in aqueous normal phase chromatography (ANPC) and four in subcritical fluid chromatography (SFC). Highly orthogonal separations were achieved with these chromatographic modes. Hydrophobic interactions mainly governed the retention of the substrates and their polar glucuronides in RPLC despite the use of different chemical stationary phase bonding, involving additional possible interactions. In ANPC, atypical separations and poor peak shapes were observed with the selected compounds. In HILIC and SFC conditions, the metabolites were more retained than the substrates because of the polarity increase related to the glucuronic acid moiety. For the latter, a very high proportion of organic solvent (up to 80%) was required to elute the glucuronides that often displayed poor peak shapes. Finally, the selectivity of nine chromatographic systems was compared for the separation of isomeric and diastereoisomeric compounds. The stationary phases used in RPLC mode were more selective towards the two positional isomers of morphine glucuronides since they possess distinct lipophilicity. HILIC and SFC columns were found to be promising for the separation of a critical diastereoisomers pair, namely epitestosterone-glucuronide and testosterone-glucuronide.