Determination of testosterone metabolites in human hepatocytes: I. Development of an on-line sample preparation liquid chromatography technique and mass spectroscopic detection of 6β-hydroxytestosterone

A rapid and sensitive RP–HPLC assay for determination of 6β-hydroxytestosterone in human hepatocytes with corticosterone as the internal standard is described. The procedure employs on-line sample enrichment using a BioTrap 500 MS™ (20×4 mm I.D.) extraction pre-column and subsequent gradient separation on a Prontosil 60-5 C18-H (250×2 mm I.D., 5 μm particle size) analytical column in the back-flush mode using a ternary eluent system composed of methanol, tetrahydrofuran and water. Signal monitoring was done by measurement of the responses from liquid chromatography coupled to mass spectroscopy (LC–MS/MS) using an atmospheric pressure chemical ionization (APCI) source conducted in the selected reaction monitoring (SRM) mode. Mean recoveries of 6β-hydroxytestosterone from an estimate of the biological matrix, i.e., Dulbecco’s modified Eagle medium “High Glucose”, ranged from 101.8–104.4% for samples containing the target analyte at the 250, 500 and 1000 ng/ml level. The limit of quantitation (LOQ) was 20 ng/ml at an injection volume of 100 μl determined in the same matrix. Linearity of signal responses versus concentration for all three analytes was accomplished in the range of 100–4000 ng/ml. Mean values of the coefficients of variation (C.V.) for the target analyte obtained for the concentrations 250, 500 and 1000 ng/ml at 5 different days in quintuplicate ranged from 1.5–7.7% (within-day) and 4.8–7.3% (between-day). The corresponding values for the accuracy ranged from 87.7–106.1% for the within-day and from 98.8–102.5% for the between-day measurements. The target analyte was sufficiently stable at both storage and sample preparation conditions because no substantial deviations between analyte concentrations measured before and after subsequently performed freeze and thaw cycles were observed.