Quantitative determination of several toxicological important mycotoxins in pig plasma using multi-mycotoxin and analyte-specific high performance liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometric methods

A sensitive and reliable multi-mycotoxin method was developed for the identification and quantification of several toxicological important mycotoxins such as deoxynivalenol (DON), deepoxy-deoxynivalenol (DOM-1), T-2 toxin (T-2), HT-2 toxin (HT-2), zearalenone (ZON), zearalanone (ZAN), α-zearalenol (α-ZOL), β-zearalenol (β-ZOL), α-zearalanol (α-ZAL), β-zearalanol (β-ZAL), ochratoxin A (OTA), fumonisin B1 (FB1) and aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) in pig plasma using liquid chromatography combined with heated electrospray ionization triple quadrupole tandem mass spectrometry (LC–h-ESI-MS/MS). Sample clean-up consisted of a deproteinization step using acetonitrile, followed by evaporation of the supernatant and resuspension of the dry residue in water/methanol (85/15, v/v). Each plasma sample was analyzed twice, i.e. once in the ESI+ and ESI− mode, respectively. This method can be used for the assessment of animal exposure to mycotoxins and in the diagnosis of mycotoxicoses. For the performance of toxicokinetic studies with individual mycotoxins, highly sensitive analyte-specific LC–MS/MS methods were developed.The multi-mycotoxin and analyte-specific methods were in-house validated: matrix-matched calibration graphs were prepared for all compounds and correlation and goodness-of-fit coefficients ranged between 0.9974–0.9999 and 2.4–15.5%, respectively. The within- and between-run precision and accuracy were evaluated and the results fell within the ranges specified. The limits of quantification for the multi-mycotoxin and analyte-specific methods ranged from 2 to 10 ng/mL and 0.5 to 5 ng/mL, respectively, whereas limits of detection fell between 0.01–0.52 ng/mL and <0.01–0.15 ng/mL, respectively.

► We developed LC–MS/MS methods for the analysis of important mycotoxins in plasma.
► Multi-mycotoxin and analyte-specific methods were developed.
► Methods allowing the determination of the analytes at the low ng/mL range.
► A rapid and simple sample preparation.
► The validated methods were applied to real plasma samples.