Novel and simple high-performance liquid chromatographic method for determination of 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl-coenzyme A reductase activity

We present here a high-performance liquid chromatographic method for the evaluation of 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl-coenzyme A (HMG-CoA) reductase activity. The automated method was applied to fungal and mouse liver extracts and validated by the addition of mevastatin to the reaction mixture and by several intra- and inter-day assays. This method offers important advantages over those previously reported because no radiolabeled substrates or expensive techniques such as mass spectrometry are required, and the time of analysis is relatively short. Moreover, the method can be successfully applied to different biological samples; hence, it should be very useful in evaluating potential inhibitors of the HMG-CoA enzyme and investigating cholesterol metabolism, cell growth and differentiation processes.