Quantitative determination of endogenous tetrahydroisoquinoline salsolinolin peripheral blood mononuclear cells by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry

Endogenous 1-methyl-1, 2, 3, 4-tetrahydro-6,7-dihydroxyisoquinoline (salsol inol) could be a potential marker involved in the etiology of alcoholism. T he amount of salsolinol analyzed previously from plasma and urine by differ ent methods depends on several dietary conditions because nutrition has an important influence on salsolinol excretion. Whereas plasma salsolinol is i nfluenced by the diet the salsolinol from peripheral mononuclear cells shou ld be endogenously formed. Therefore, a method for the quantification of S- and R-salsolinol from lymphocytes by using gas chromatography-mass spectrom etry was developed. The average amount of salsolinol in 10(6) cells was 1.2 5 ng corresponding to 2.41X10(-5) M and was shown to be much higher than th e plasma salsolinol concentration (2.6X10(-9)). (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B .V. All rights reserved.