Comprehensive analysis of the lipophilic reactive carbonyls present in biological specimens by LC/ESI-MS/MS

A new analytical method has been developed for profiling lipophilic reactive carbonyls (RCs) such as aldehydes and ketones in biological samples using liquid chromatography/electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry (LC/ESI-MS/MS) with selected reaction monitoring (SRM). The method consists of several phases, including (1) extraction of lipophilic RCs with a chloroform/methanol mixture; (2) derivatization of the extracted RCs with dansyl hydrazine (DH); and (3) SRM detection of the characteristic product ion of the 5-dimethylaminonaphthalene-1-sulfonyl moiety (m/z 236.1). The analytical results were expressed as RC maps, which allowed for the occurrence and levels of different lipophilic RCs to be visualized. We also developed a highly reproducible and accurate method to extract, purify and derivatize RCs in small volumes of biological specimens. This method was applied to the detection of free RCs in mice plasma samples, and resulted in the detection of more than 400 RCs in samples obtained from C57BL/6J mice. Thirty-four of these RCs were identified by comparison with authentic RCs. This method could be used to investigate the levels of RCs in biological and environmental samples, as well as studying the role of lipid peroxidation in oxidative stress related-disorders and discovering new biomarkers for the early diagnosis of these diseases.