text: There are a variety of probes with different membrane and shaft length combinations available.  The molecular weight cutoff of commercially available microdialysis probes covers a wide range of approximately 6-100kD, but also 1MD is available.  While water-soluble compounds generally diffuse freely across the microdialysis membrane, the situation is not as clear for highly lipophilic analytes, where both successful (e.g. corticosteroids) and unsuccessful microdialysis experiments (e.g. estradiol, fusidic acid) have been reported.  However, the recovery of water-soluble compounds usually decreases rapidly if the molecular weight of the analyte exceeds 25% of the membrane’s molecular weight cutoff.