Investigation of a QuEChERS-Based Method for Determination of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons in Rat Plasma by GC-MS

Owing to the toxic effects of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) on humans and the environment, their sensitive biomonitoring is essential and significant. In this work, a sensitive, simple and rapid bioanalytical method was established for the simultaneous determination of 13 PAHs in rat plasma depending on QuEChERS (Quick, easy, cheap, effective and rugged method) as a preliminary step and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) for identification. QuEChERS procedure was optimized where acetonitrile was employed for plasma samples extraction, which was further cleaned using primary secondary amine as the sorbent material. Optimization of GC-MS conditions was performed to produce optimum selectivity of the proposed method. The method was fully validated for rat plasma samples where recoveries, matrix effects, limit of quantitation (LOQ), linearity and precision were evaluated. Linearity range was 5-100 ng/mL for most of the 13 analytes. Average recoveries of the 13 PAHs ranged between 85.57% and 109.64% in fortified rat plasma with standard deviations <8.91 except for anthracene that showed 19.24. The limits of detection and LOQs for the 13 compounds ranged from 0.045 to 0.372 ppb and from 0.137 to 1.128 ppb, respectively. The established method was successfully implemented to perform a minor toxicokinetic study in intraperitoneally dosed rats (0.25 and 2 mg/kg in vegetable oil). The 13 PAHs were tracked in rat plasma samples for 6 h after administration, and most of the target compounds were recognized in plasma samples only at the higher dose.