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Updated: Jun 1, 2026

Untargeted Metabolomics from Biological Sources Using Ultraperformance Liquid Chromatography-High Resolution Mass Spectrometry (UPLC-HRMS)
Published on: May 20, 2013
Determination of isotretinoin in human plasma by high performance liquid chromatography-electrospray ionization mass
Lili Wu1, Jingjing Wu, Ke Zhou
1Department of pharmacology, Institute of Dermatology, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences & Peking Union Medical College, Nanjing 210042, China.
Abstract:
A rapid, sensitive and specific high performance liquid chromatography-electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (LC-ESI-MS) method for the quantification of 13-cis-retinoic acid (isotretinoin) in human plasma has been developed. Acitretin was employed as the internal standard (IS). The analytes were chromatographically separated on a Shimadzu Shim-pack VP-ODS C18 column (150 mm × 2.0 mm I.D.) with a mobile phase consisting of acetonitrile and water (90:10, v/v). Detection was performed on a single quadrupole mass spectrometer using an electrospray ionization interface with the selected-ion monitoring (SIM) mode. The method showed excellent linearity (r=0.9989) over the concentration range of 10-1500 ng/mL with good accuracy and precision. The intra- and inter-batch precisions were within 10% relative standard deviation. The recoveries were more than 80%. The validated method was successfully applied to a preliminary bioequivalence study of isotretinoin in 20 Chinese healthy male volunteers.
