In recent years, there has been an increasing worldwide interest in the use of alternative sample preparation methods that are proceeded by separation techniques. Fused deposition modeling (FDM) is a 3D printing technique that is based the consecutive layering of softened/melted thermoplastic materials. In this study, a group of natural steroids and sexual hormones - namely, aldosterone, cortisol, β-estradiol, testosterone, dihydrotestosterone, and synthetic methyltestosterone and betamethasone - were separated and determined using an optimized high-performance liquid chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry (LC-MS) method in positive ionization mode. 3D-printed sorbents were selected as the pre-concentration technique because they are generally low cost, fast, and simple to make and automate. Furthermore, the use of 3D-printed sorbents helps to minimize potential errors due to their repeatability and reproducibility, and their ability to eliminate carry over by using one printed sorbent for a single extraction of steroids from biological matrices. The extraction procedure was optimized and the parameters influencing 3D-printed Layfomm 60® based sorbent and LC-MS were studied, including the type of extraction solvent used, sorption and desorption times, temperature, and the salting-out effect. To demonstrate this method's applicability for biological sample analysis, the SPME-LC-MS method was validated for its ability to simultaneously quantify endogenous steroids. This evaluation confirmed good linearity and an R2 that was between 0.9970 and 0.9990. The recovery rates for human plasma samples were 86.34-93.6% for the studied steroids with intra- and inter-day RSDs of 1.44-7.42% and 1.44-9.46%, respectively. To our knowledge, this study is the first time that 3D-printed sorbents have been used to extract trace amounts of endogenous low-molecular-weight compounds, such as steroids, from biological samples, such as plasma.
Keywords: 3D printing; Extraction; Fused deposition modeling; Human plasma sample; Polymeric sorbents; Small molecules; Steroids.
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