Micellar electrokinetic capillary chromatographic separation and laser-induced fluorescence detection of 2'-deoxynucleoside 5'-monophosphates of normal and modified bases

Micellar electrokinetic chromatography is used to separate dansylated nucleotides, both normal and modified species. The high separation power allows detection of minor components present in less than 1 part per thousand of the major components. Laser-excited fluorescence is used to detect the separated components at the 6 · 10⁻¹⁸ mol level or 10⁻⁹ M injected material. Combined with high-performance liquid chromatographic enrichment prior to labeling, this technique can be used to assess DNA damage in carcinogenesis studies.