RAPID SIMULTANEOUS ANALYSIS OF PROSTAGLANDIN E-2, 12-HYDROXYEICOSATETRAENOIC ACID AND ARACHIDONIC-ACID USING HIGH-PERFORMANCE LIQUID-CHROMATOGRAPHY ELECTROSPRAY-IONIZATION MASS-SPECTROMETRY

Arachidonic acid (AA) can be metabolized to a variety of lipid mediato rs including prostaglandins (PGE), and hydroxyeicosatetraenoic acids ( HETE) by cyclooxygenase, lipoxygenase and cytochrome P450-dependent mo nooxygenase enzymatic pathways, Traditional experimental procedures to quantify these lipid mediators require purification, often by high pe rformance liquid chromatography (HPLC), prior to derivatization for ga s chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS) analysis, This paper descri bes a rapid and simple technique for the simultaneous quantitative ana lysis of PGE(2), 12-HETE, and AA by HPLC/electrospray ionization mass spectrometry on cultured human dermal fibroblast supernatants, Extensi on of the method to analyse 5-HETE and 15-HETE was investigated,The ad vantages of this method include minimal sample preparation and elimina tion of the problem associated with thermal stability for GC/MS analys is, A detection limit of 20pg on column for PGE(2) and 5pg on column f or 12-HETE and AA was determined. (C) 1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.