An efficient and sensitive ion-pair HPLC-UV method using atenolol as internal standard （IS） was developed and validated for the determination of metformin in the plasma of diabetic rats. Plasma samples were deproteinated with 10% （v/v） perchloric acid. Separation was achieved on a UltimateTM AQ-C18 column （250 mm×4.6 mm, 5 μm） with a mobile phase （pH 5.05） composed of acetonitrile-water （31：69, v/v, containing 0.002 M sodium dodecyl sulfate, 0.0125 M potassium dihydrogen phosphate, 0.015 M triethylamine） at a flow rate of 1.0 mL/min. The calibration curve was linear （r〉0.994） between 7.5 and 4000 ng/mL. The lower limit of quantification （LLOQ） was 7.5 ng/mL. The precision was validated and the relative standard deviation was in the range of 1.87% to 15.70%; the accuracy was between 93.98%-106.89%. The mean recoveries were 95.40% and 95.31% for metformin and IS, respectively. The relative error （RE） of stability at different storage conditions was within ±9.00%. This method was used to determine the concentration-time profile of metformin in diabetic rat plasma following an oral administration of metformin at the dose of 10 mg/kg. Our results indicated that ion-pair HPLC-UV method using UltimateTM AQ-C18 column was effective for the pharmacokinetic studies of high polarity compounds like metformin.
