A C18 reversed-phase column and isocratic fluorescence HPLC method for the simultaneous detection of
glutamate and -aminobutyric acid (GABA) is described. In this article a fast and more efficient method
for the extraction of these neurotransmitters in rat brain tissue is also presented. The supernatant was
derivatized with o-phthalaldehyde (OPA) and analyzed by HPLC with fluorescence detection. Intraday
reproducibility was 97.0% and 96.7% and interday reproducibility was 97.1% and 93.7% for GABA and glutamate,
respectively. Recovery assays indicate that the accuracy of the method for GABA is 99.6±2.3% and
for glutamate is 101.9±1.8%. In addition, the time consumedto run asample is lower than that describedby
other authors. Mean elution timewas 3.10 min and 8.22 min for glutamate andGABA, respectively. Thus, in
a total runtime of less than 9 min both neurotransmitterswere detected. Moreover, when compared to the
current methods, the extraction solution used here allowed a high drawing out of the neurotransmitters,
glutamate and GABA, from the hippocampus, thalamus and prefrontal cortex of the rat brain