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Updated: Jun 27, 2026
The Use of Gas Chromatography to Analyze Compositional Changes of Fatty Acids in Rat Liver Tissue during Pregnancy
Published on: March 13, 2014
Detection and quantification of fatty acid ethyl esters in meconium by headspace-solid-phase microextraction and gas
J R Hutson1, K Aleksa, F Pragst
1Institute of Medical Science, University of Toronto, Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, ON, Canada.
Abstract:
Meconium fatty acid ethyl esters (FAEEs) are currently used as biomarkers to detect heavy prenatal alcohol exposure. We introduce a novel technique to quantify FAEEs in meconium using headspace-solid-phase microextraction (HS-SPME) coupled with gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). This method improves on previous approaches by decreasing sample preparation time, eliminating the need for organic solvents, and reducing the required sample size. Using 50mg of meconium, the detection limits of FAEEs ranged from 0.05 to 0.16 nmol/g and had good reproducibility making it ideal for routine analysis of clinical samples.
