A sensitive and selective HPLC-FLD method with fluorescent labeling for simultaneous detection of bile acid and free fatty acid in human serum

A sensitive and selective method using 2-(7H-dibenzo[a,g]carbazol-7-yl)ethyl 4-methylbenzenesulfonate (DBCETS) as a new fluorescent labeling reagent has been proposed for simultaneously detecting BA and FFA by HPLC with fluorescence detector. The developed method offered the low detection limits of 0.42–0.70 and 0.28–0.57 ng/mL for BA and FFA, respectively. Compared with the reported methods, the proposed method here is capable of offering higher detection sensitivity and selectivity, with less cost and lower volume of sample preparation. This method was validated to ensure high accuracy and precision, and the reliability of its results. When applied to the serum samples of healthy volunteers and patients with hepatic carcinoma, it showed excellent applicability.

► A new HPLC-FLD method was developed for bile acid and free fatty acid detection.
► The method was validated by linearity, LOD, repeatability, accuracy and precision.
► We compared the proposed method with the reported methods.