Development and validation of a reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatographic method for quantification of peptide dendrimers in human skin permeation experiments

The aim of the present work was to develop and validate a simple RP-HPLC method with UV detection to quantify peptide dendrimers in skin permeation experiments. Six dendrimers of varying positive charges (4⁺, 8⁺ and 16⁺) containing either histidine or arginine as terminal aminoacids were prepared by solid phase peptide synthesis. Mobile phase containing 0.02% (v/v) heptafluorobutyric acid in 90% acetonitrile-water was capable of separating all dendrimers from interfering peaks of receptor fluid. For the calibration of each dendrimer, a different dendrimer from the same class was selected as the internal standard. The results of preliminary human skin permeation studies showed that the developed analytical method can be successfully used for the quantification of cationic poly(aminoacid)-based dendrimers in skin permeation experiments.