Separation and sensitive detection of D-amino acids in biological matrices.

The increase in our understanding of D-amino acid function and distribution in mammals is in many ways a result of the initial development of sensitive enantioselective separation strategies that allow for quantification in real biological samples. This article reviews progress on the development of chiral selective separation and detection of D-amino acids including enzyme-based microbiosensors, GC/MS, HPLC/fluorescence, HPLC/MS-MS, cEKC/fluorescence, and MEKC/fluorescence. Only methods capable of analyzing D-isomers in biological matrices are given here and significant effort is made to highlight approaches that offer speed, resolution, high sensitivity, and versatility.