A direct determination of thymidine triphosphate concentrations without dephosphorylation in peripheral blood mononuclear cells by LC/MS/MS

A rapid, sensitive and specific analytical method with minimal sample prepa ration for the measurement of thymidine triphosphate (TTP) in peripheral bl ood mononuclear cells (PBMC) by LC/MS/MS has been developed. PBMC were sepa rated from whole blood or buffy coat. The analyte and internal standard wer e extracted from PBMC with 70% methanol (pH 7.2). These extracts after cent rifugation were directly injected onto LC/MS/MS without need for any furthe r sample preparation. The calibration curve was linear over the range 0.8-8 00 ng/ml. Mean inter- and intra-assay coefficients of variation (CVs) over the range of the standard curve were less than 10%. The overall recovery of TTP was 103.5%. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science BN. All rights reserved.