High-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) as a means of assessing the presence of uric acid in archeological human remains: Challenges and future directions.

The lack of detectable uric acid extracted from these samples suggests that (1) urate crystals were not present in any of the bone samples, regardless of gout status; (2) urate crystals did not survive these specific archeological conditions; or (3) the concentration of uric acid in our bone extracts was low, and thus larger samples would be required.