Development, validation and biomedical applications of stable-isotope dilution GC–MS and GC–MS/MS techniques for circulating malondialdehyde (MDA) after pentafluorobenzyl bromide derivatization: MDA as a biomarker of oxidative stress and its relation to 1

• Malondialdehyde (MDA) is a popular oxidative stress biomarker.
• We report a unique derivatization of MDA with pentafluorobenzyl bromide.
• Deuterium-labelled MDA is used as the internal standard.
• MDA is quantitated in human plasma and urine by GC–MS and GC–MS/MS.
• Several biomedical applications of the methods are reported.

Malondialdehyde (MDA, CH2(CHO)2) is one of the best investigated and most frequently measured biomarkers of lipid peroxidation in biological fluids, a constituent of the so called thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS). The reaction of thiobarbituric acid with MDA and other carbonyl compounds is the basis for the batch TBARS assay, one of the most commonly and widely used assays of oxidative stress. Yet, the TBARS assay lacks specificity even if combined with HPLC separation prior to visible absorbance or fluorescence detection. In this article, we report highly specific and sensitive stable-isotope dilution GC–MS and GC–MS/MS methods for the quantitative determination of MDA in human plasma (0.1 mL). These methods utilize the acidity (pKa, 4.46) of the two methylene H protons of MDA in aqueous solution, which are as acidic as acetic acid. Endogenous MDA in native plasma and the externally added internal standard [1,3-2H2]-MDA (d2-MDA, CH2(CDO)2) are derivatized in aqueous acetone (400 μL) with pentafluorobenzyl (PFB) bromide (10 μL). The reaction products were identified as C(PFB)2(CHO)2 (molecular weight, 432) and C(PFB)2(CDO)2) (molecular weight, 434), respectively. After solvent extraction with toluene (1 mL) quantification is performed by selected-ion monitoring (SIM) in GC–MS and by selected-reaction monitoring (SRM) in GC–MS/MS in the electron-capture negative-ion chemical ionization (ECNICI) mode. In the SIM mode, the anions [M − PFB]– at m/z 251 for MDA and m/z 253 for d2-MDA are detected. In the SRM mode, the mass transitions m/z 251 to m/z 175 for MDA and m/z 253 to m/z 177 for d2-MDA are monitored. The method was thoroughly validated in human plasma. Potential interfering substances including anticoagulants and commercially available monovettes commonly used for blood sampling were tested. The lowest MDA concentrations were measured in serum followed by heparinized and EDTA plasma. The GC–MS and GC–MS/MS methods were found to be specific, precise, accurate and sensitive. Thus, the LOD of the GC–MS/MS method was determined to be 2 amol (2 × 10−18 mol) MDA. The GC–MS/MS method is exceedingly useful in clinical settings. We report several biomedical applications and discuss the utility of circulating MDA as a biomarker of lipid peroxidation, especially in long-term clinical studies, and its relation to the F2-isoprostane 15(S)-8-iso-prostaglandin F2α and nitric oxide (NO).