An Assay for the Quantitation of Photofrin in Tissues and Fluids

A method for determining the concentration of Photofrin in tissues and biological fluids was developed. The procedure is based on the dissolution of biological material with Solvable, a commercially available tissue solubilizer, followed by porphyrin-specific fluorescence detection and measurement. It was found necessary to use a quadratic standard curve for the estimation of unknown Photofrin concentrations. While this method is limited to compounds that are stable in strong base, it has the advantages of being sensitive, rapid and low cost.