Desarrollo y validación de una técnica de cromatografía líquida de alta resolución para la determinación de atorvastatina en plasma en un biomodelo experimental de arteriosclerosis en pollo☆

Introduction. Atorvastatin is a hydroxy-methylglutaryl coenzyme A (HMG-CoA) reductase inhibitor that has shown to be efficacious in reducing both cholesterol and triglycerides in patients with primary hyperlipidemia or combined hyperlipidemia. An erroneous extrapolation of human doses to animal arteriosclerosis biomodels is often employed. This practice can be avoided through pharmacokinetics studies aimed to designing correct dosing regimens. Therefore, it is necessary to develop methods of drug analysis in plasma. In our study, atorvastatin was used in a biomodel of atherosclerosis in chickens. It is essential for these methods to have optimum precision and accuracy.Methods. We used a High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) method with fluorescence detection for atorvastatin analysis and quantification. Previously, a fluorescence study of atorvastatin molecule in order to establish excitation and emission wavelengths was conducted. The method was used to determine the steady-state concentrations of this drug in the chicken atherosclerosis biomodel.Results. After processing of plasma samples and injection in the HPLC system, the peak corresponding to atorvastatin appeared at 16.3 min. Plasma atorvastatin concentrations were lineal (r > 0.999) for the range of concentrations used. Recovery obtained in our study showed the present method to be easy, low-cost and with acceptable precision.Conclusions. Our present data show a technical procedure providing good results regarding its easiness, low cost and good reproducibility.