DETERMINATION OF ESTRONE, 17-ALPHA-ESTRADIOL AND 17-BETA-ESTRADIOL INBOVINE AQUEOUS-HUMOR USING GAS-CHROMATOGRAPHY NEGATIVE-ION CHEMICAL-IONIZATION MASS-SPECTROMETRY

Perfluorotolyl (PFT)-ether and perfluorotoly-trimethylsilyl (PFT-TMS) ether derivatives of oestrone, 17 alpha- and 17 beta-oestradiol were p repared under phase transfer conditons. The former derivatives under n egative ion chemical ionization conditions gave significant ions in th e mass spectrometer but 17 alpha- and 17 beta-oestradiol gave poor res olution. However, the PFT-TMS derivatives of 17 alpha- and 17 beta-oes tradiol showed good resolution. These derivatives were used for the an alysis of oestrogens in bovine aqueous humour, vitreous humour and ret ina. The mean (+/-SEM) concentrations of oestrone in bovine aqueous hu mour (n=18), vitreous humour (n=18) and bovine retina (n=4) were 0.47/-0.11, 0.46+/-0.14 and 1.10+/-0.24 ng.ml(-1), respectively. 17 alpha- Oestradiol was detected in 16 out of 18 samples of bovine aqueous humo ur and vitreous humour and the mean (+/-SEM) concentrations were 0.30/-0.10 and 0.08+/-0.02 ng.ml(-1), respectively. The mean (+/-SEM) conc entration of 17 beta-oestradiol in aqueous humour (n=7) and vitreous h omour (n=11) 0.83+/-0.26 ng ml(-1) and 0.39+/-0.09 ng ml(-1), respecti vely. In retina the concentrations of both steroids were below the det ection limit.