Sensitive measurement of polyols in urine by capillary zone electrophoresis coupled with amperometric detection using on-column complexation with borate

Little is known about human polyol metabolism, but recent studies indicate that abnormal polyol concentrations in body fluids are related to several diseases. In this study, a rapid and sensitive method for the determination of seven major polyols in urine including two groups of polyol isomers, C5-polyols (Rib + Arb + Xyl) and C6-polyols (Sor + Gal + Man), was developed using capillary zone electrophoresis coupled with amperometric detection (CZE-AD). The effects of the working electrode potential, pH, running buffer components and concentrations, separation voltage and injection times were investigated. Under the optimised conditions, seven types of polyols could be perfectly separated via the formation of anionic polyol–borate complexes in a borate buffer solution. Highly linear current responses to the polyol concentrations were obtained with good correlation (0.9984 < R2 < 0.9997), and the limits of detection (LODs) ranged from 1.33 × 10−6 to 5.8 × 10−7 mol L−1 (S/N = 3). The proposed method has been successfully used to detect polyols in urinary samples from healthy subjects and diabetes patients, demonstrating accurate and reliable results. This method has potential applications in the recognition of inborn errors affecting polyol metabolism.

► A sensitive CZE-AD method for the simultaneous analysis of polyols was developed.
► The polyol isomers were separated on the formation of polyol–borate complexes.
► Some urinary polyols in diabetes patients were higher than those of healthy ones.
► This method can become a choice for recognising abnormal polyols metabolism.