Determination of thromboxanes, leukotrienes and lipoxins using high-temperature capillary liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry and on-line sample preparation

• Published in: Journal of Chromatography A 2009-05, Vol.1216 (22), p.4648-4654
• Main Authors: Dahl, Sandra Rinne, Kleiveland, Charlotte Ramstad, Kassem, Moustapha, Lea, Tor, Lundanes, Elsa, Greibrokk, Tyge
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Capillary LC–MS/MS; Cell culture; High-temperature; Human mesenchymal stem cells; Leukotrienes; Lipoxin; Thromboxanes
• ISSN: 0021-9673
• DOI: 10.1016/j.chroma.2009.03.068

An on-line strong cation-exchange (SCX)–reversed-phase (RP) capillary liquid chromatographic (cLC) method with ion-trap tandem mass spectrometric (IT-MS/MS) detection for the simultaneous determination of thromboxane (TX) B 2, TXB 3, leukotriene (LT) B 4, LTD 4 and lipoxin (LX) A 4 in cell culture supernatants was developed and validated. In the present method, a high temperature (70 °C) was used for the separation on the analytical column to obtain efficient chromatography of the thromboxanes. An on-line sample preparation was performed, where peptides/proteins contained in the matrix were removed by the SCX column. Sample pre-treatment included dilution and filtration, and the analysis time including all sample preparation steps was 60 min per sample. Limits of detection in the range of 1–4 ng/mL cell culture supernatant, recoveries between 30% and 100%, within day precisions of less than 20% RSD and between day precisions of less than 30% RSD were obtained. Human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs) were stimulated with cytokine-containing supernatants derived from activated human T lymphocytes, and thromboxane, leukotriene and lipoxin production was analysed using the developed method. TXB 2 was found in cultures from both non-differentiated and differentiated hMSCs that were stimulated with a cytokine-containing supernatant obtained from activated T-cells.