Full Length Research Paper

Salivary amino acids quantification using RP-HPLC during normal menstrual cycle

S. Alagendran^1,5, K. Rameshkumar², K. Palanivelu, N. Puspha⁴, M. Ranjani⁴, N. Arulmozhi⁴ and G. Archunan⁵*

¹PG. Department of Biotechnology, Nehru memorial college (Autonomous), Puthanampatti- 621 007, Tiruchirappalli, Tamil nadu, India.

²Department of Zoology, Raja Serfoji Government College, Thanjavur,

Tamil nadu, India.

³Department of Zoology and Biochemistry, Government College for Men (Autonomous), Kumbakonam, Tamil nadu, India.

⁴Department of Microbiology, Cauvery College for women, Tiruchirappalli. Tamil nadu, India.

⁵Centre for Pheromone Technology, Department of Animal science, Bharathidasan University, Tiruchirappalli- 620 024, Tamil Nadu, India.

*Corresponding author. E-mail: garchu56@yahoo.co.in.

Accepted 8 May, 2009

   Abstract

The present study was carried out to detect amino acids profile in women saliva in order to establish the qualitative and quantitative differences that might have potential value in detection of ovulation by noninvasive methods. For the collection of sample, the stages of menstrual cycle were decided by the physical and morphological examination of salivary fern pattern. The saliva from various reproductive phases (prepubertal, preovulatory, ovulatory, postovulatory phases and menopause) was collected and analyzed by reverse phase high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) after precolumn derivitization of amino acids using O-Pthaldehyde (OPA) by means of RP-HPLC amino acid analyzer. Among the various amino acids identified the compounds such as tryptophan, arginine and phenylalanine were comparatively found to be higher during ovulatory phase when compared to that of other phases. The increase in amino acid concentration during ovulatory phase may be due to the circulation of steroid hormones. Thus, the presence of specific amino acids in ovulatory saliva makes the possibility to develop a biomarker for detection of ovulation by noninvasive methods.

Key words: Ovulation steroid hormones, O-Pthaladehyde, chromatography, amino acids