Catecholamines Analysis Service

Catecholamines are a group of biogenic amines primarily synthesized in the

adrenal medulla or the cells of the sympathetic nervous system from the
amino acid tyrosine through the intermediate product dopamine. Dopamine,
adrenaline (epinephrine) and noradrenaline (norepinephrine) are members of
this group. In response to the physical and emotional stress, catecholamines
are released into the bloodstream and act as important hormones and
neurotransmitters.
By binding to specific receptors on the membranes of target cells,
catecholamines play their roles. They assist in the transmission of nerve
impulses in the brain, dilation of pupils and bronchioles and promoting the
energy release from glucose and fatty acid. Norepinephrine can also constrict
blood vessels, increases blood pressure, heart rate and metabolism. With
these effects, catecholamine assists in the organism’s adaption to acute and
chronic stress.
After completing their roles, catecholamines convert to other inactive
compounds. Dopamine coverts homovanillic acid (HVA), norepinephrine
degrades into normetanephrine and vanillylmandelic acid (VMA), and
epinephrine turns into metanephrine and VMA. All of these catecholamine and
their metabolites are excreted from the body through the urine.
Generally speaking, catecholamines and their metabolites exist in the body in
small amounts and only increase apparently during and shortly after physical
and emotional stress. However, rare tumors like pheochromocytomas and
paragangliomas boost the generation of huge amounts of catecholamines,
which in turn result in persistent or sudden bursts of high blood pressure. The
symptoms of these tumors include sweating, nausea, anxiety, severe
headaches and heart palpitations. Over time, the excess catecholamines may
 raise the risk for kidney damage, stroke or heart attack and heart failure. To
diagnose and treat these tumors are an important issue because hypertension
from these tumors can be cured through surgical removal.
Urine and plasma are used as materials for determining catecholamines
concentrations to help confirming or ruling out the existence of these tumors. .
Catecholamine testing measures the amounts of these compounds in the
urine and blood. Urine testing is recommended because it’s more reliable.
The stress from having blood drawn can increase catecholamine blood
concentration. Therefore, results from urine tests are more reliable than blood
tests.
Catecholamines and their metabolites are rather low in biological samples.
This pose a great challenge to sensitivity and pretreatment of the detection
methods. In immunoassays, cross-reactivity and non-specific binding may be
a problem because they can lead to false-positive results. Thought HPLC-
ECD is popular in the analysis of CA and their metabolites. HPLC-ECD is
rather labor consuming and time-consuming because derivatization steps are
essential in HPLC-ECD. The coeluting interference and electrode fouling
compromise the reliability of HPLC-ECD. Creative Proteomics offers the
HPLC-MS platform with excellent specificity and sensitivity.
Platform
 LC-MS
Summary
 Identification & Quantification of Catecholamines and Their Metabolites
Sample Requirement
 Normal Volume: 400uL plasma, 100 mg tissue, (2E7) cells
 Minimal Volume: 100uL plasma, 50 mg tissue, (5E6) cells
Report
 A detailed technical report will be provided at the end of the whole
project, including the experiment procedure, MS instrument parameters.
 Analytes are reported as uM/ml, while CV's are generally 10%.
 The name of the analytes, abbreviation, formula, molecular weight and
CAS# would also be included in the report.