An accelerated mass spectrometric method for measuring myo-inositol in phosphatidylinositol in rat brain

A fast and efficient chemical ionization mass spectrometric (CI–GC–MS) method for measuring myo-inositol in phosphatidylinositol (PtdIns) in rat brain has been developed. Previously, quantitation of PtdIns involved the release of the myo-inositol by two enzymatic reactions using phospholipase C and alkaline phosphatase. The hydrolytic action of these enzymes was replaced by using commercially available 48% hydrofluoric acid (HF) at 80 °C for 30 min. The process can be carried out on the crude Folch extract of brain phospholipids without prior thin layer chromatography (TLC) purification, thereby significantly increasing the speed of analysis. For quantification, unlabeled myo-inositol, labeled myo- and neo-inositol (internal standard) were converted to acetate derivatives and analyzed by CI–GC–MS.