A rat liver microsome pseudostationary phase has beenused for the on-line capillary electrophoresis monitoringof glucuronidation. Uridine diphosphate glucuronosyltransferase (EC 2.4.1.17) containing microsomes wasisolated from rat liver and directly injected onto neutrallycoated capillary containing polymeric replaceable gelsfollowed by injection of the substrate mixture. On-lineglucuronidation was observed within 15 min without anysample preparation. The factors affecting the separationof glucuronides and parent compounds were investigatedby varying the applied electric fields and the size (lengthand internal diameter) of capillary. The Michaelis-Mentenparameters (
Km and V
max) for the glucuronidation of4-methyl-7-hydroxy coumarin and 4-nitrophenol weredetermined using the CE method and by off-line microsomal incubation. No significant differences were observedfor
Km and
Vmax values for 4-methyl-7-hydroxycoumarinand 4-nitrophenol between on-line and off-line glucuronidation of these two compounds. This method was alsoused to determine the inhibition constant (IC
50 value) forthe competitive inhibition of morphine glucuronidation bycodeine, IC
50 (on-line) = 170 vs 580
![](/images/entities/mgr.gif)
M (off-line). Theresults demonstrate that this method can be used toscreen for the glucuronidation of test compounds andshould reduce the time required for this screening process.