Relative quantification of carboxylic acid metabolites by liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry using isotopic variants of cholamine

Anal Chem. 2007 Jul 15;79(14):5143-9. doi: 10.1021/ac062416m. Epub 2007 Jun 12.

Abstract

Labeling reagents that differ only in their isotopic composition offer a powerful approach to achieve relative quantification between samples by ESI-MS. Heavy and light isotopic forms of cholamine, which contain a positively charged quaternary ammonium group, were synthesized and tested as new labeling reagents for the relative quantification of carboxylic acid-containing metabolites, specifically fatty acids. The positive charge on cholamine ensures that the labeled product is also positively charged under all LC-MS conditions, regardless of mobile-phase pH. This leads to high ionization efficiency and correspondingly high detection sensitivity, demonstrated here for the analysis of fatty acids in positive ion mode ESI-MS after reversed-phase separation under acidic conditions. Good accuracy and precision were obtained by mixing heavy- and light-labeled hydrolyzed egg lipid extracts in different known ratios. The relative quantification results for 10 observed fatty acids had an average absolute error of 4.6% and an average coefficient of variation (CV) of 2.6%. The labeling strategy yielded a median CV of 6% when employed for fatty acid analysis of eggs from chickens fed various dietary supplements.

Publication types

  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Carboxylic Acids / chemistry
  • Carboxylic Acids / metabolism*
  • Chickens
  • Chromatography, Liquid / methods*
  • Egg Yolk / chemistry
  • Fatty Acids / analysis*
  • Hydrolysis
  • Isotope Labeling
  • Lipids / chemistry
  • Spectrometry, Mass, Electrospray Ionization / methods*
  • Trimethyl Ammonium Compounds / chemistry*

Substances

  • Carboxylic Acids
  • Fatty Acids
  • Lipids
  • Trimethyl Ammonium Compounds
  • cholamine