Bulk derivatization and cation exchange restricted access media-based trap-and-elute liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry method for determination of trace estrogens in serum

• Analysis of estrogens in small volume samples at low parts-per-trillion concentration.
• Charged bulk derivatization facilitates on-line ion exchange sample preparation.
• On-line WCX restricted access media traps analytes, but not proteins and lipids.
• Complete preparation and LC–MS/MS analysis completed in 30 min/sample.

Estrone (E1), estradiols (α/β-E2), and estriol (E3) are four major metabolically active estrogens exerting strong biological activities at very low circulating concentrations. This paper reports a sensitive and efficient method with automated, on-line clean-up and detection to determine trace estrogens in a small volume of serum samples using liquid chromatography–electrospray ionization–tandem mass spectrometry directly, without off-line liquid–liquid or solid-phase extraction pretreatments. Serum aliquots (charcoal stripped fetal bovine serum, 100 μL) were spiked with four estrogen standards and their corresponding isotope-labeled internal standards, then bulk derivatized with 2-fluoro-1-methyl-pyridium p-toluenesulfonate (2-FMP) to establish the calibration curves and perform method validation. Calibration was established in the concentration ranges of 5–1000 pg mL−1, and demonstrated good linearity of R2 from 0.9944 to 0.9997 for the four derivatized estrogens. The lower detection limits obtained were 3–7 pg mL−1. Good accuracy and precision in the range of 86–112% and 2.3–11.9%, respectively, were observed for the quality control (QC) samples at low, medium, and high concentration levels. The stability tests showed that the derivatized serum samples were stable 8 h after derivatization at room temperature and at least to 48 h if stored at −20 °C. The method was applied to measure trace estrogens in real human and bovine serum samples, and three of four estrogen compounds studied were observed and quantified.

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