Quantitative determination of adriamycin in rat hepatocytes using a volatile extraction buffer, HPLC and fluorescence detection.

A rapid and sensitive isocratic technique is described for the determination of concentrations of adriamycin and two of its metabolites, adriamycinol and adriamycinone, in freshly isolated rat hepatocytes. The drugs are easily and efficiently extracted from the cells with an organic mixture (chloroform-n-butanol) after proteolytic digestion with trypsin. Mean recoveries from spiked culture medium cell suspension are greater than 96%. The within run and day-to-day coefficients of variation are less than 7.5%.