Assessment of in situ cellular glutathione labeling with naphthalene-2,3-dicarboxaldehyde using high-performance liquid chromatography

We have presently studied a dialdehydic reagent, i.e. naphthalene-2,3-dicarboxaldehyde (NDA), as a fluorogenic probe for the labeling of intracellular reduced glutathione (GSH), using a yeast strain Candida albicans as a cell model. Chemical reactivity of NDA with both amino and sulfhydryl groups of the GSH molecule leads to a highly selective detection. Moreover, fluorescence properties of the resulting adduct fit well with most of modern instruments adapted for in situ measurements, and equipped with an argon laser. After incubation of cells with 100 μM of NDA for 20 min, cells were harvested and corresponding lysates obtained after a freezing cycle, were suspended in 0.2 M borate buffer pH 9.2 and analysed with HPLC (column: Spherisorb ODS-2 (125 mm × 4.6 mm i.d.) 5 μm; mobile phase: methanol–0.01 M phosphate buffer pH 6.5 (20:80, v/v) at a flow rate of 0.8 mL min−1; spectrofluorimetric detection: λexc = 430 nm and λem = 530 nm). The GSH-NDA adduct was identified in the yeast strain extracts using the reported HPLC technique and quantified versus a calibration curve of NDA derivatized with an excess of GSH (linearity range: 9–230 nM). The cell loading step of the free probe NDA and the extraction efficiency of the resulting NDA-GSH adduct were optimized.