Improved profiling of estrogen metabolites by orbitrap LC/MS

Estrogen metabolites are important biomarkers to evaluate cancer risks and metabolic diseases. Due to their low physiological levels, a sensitive and accurate method is required, especially for the quantitation of unconjugated forms of endogenous steroids and their metabolites in humans. Here, we evaluated various derivatives of estrogens for improved analysis by orbitrap LC/MS in human serum samples. A new chemical derivatization reagent was applied modifying phenolic steroids to form 1-methylimidazole-2-sulfonyl adducts. The method significantly improves the sensitivity 2-100 fold by full scan MS and targeted selected ion monitoring MS over other derivatization methods including, dansyl, picolinoyl, and pyridine-3-sulfonyl products.