A novel method for simultaneous measurement of concentration and enrichment of NO synthesis-specific amino acids in human plasma using stable isotopes and LC/MS ion trap analysis

• A rapid and easy derivatization procedure for NO synthesis-specific amino acids.
• Derivatization procedure beneficial in terms of robustness and derivative stability.
• Method combining derivatization of amino acids and LC–MS ion trap analysis.
• Detection of arginine, citrulline and glutamine with high sensitivity and selectivity.
• Precise and robust measurement of isotopic enrichments of amino acids.

Stable isotope studies offer the opportunity to study the in-depth metabolic pathway of glutamine, citrulline, and arginine amino acids involved in NO synthesis. The use of multiple stable isotopes can be used to elucidate the exact transformation of glutamine to citrulline and arginine de novo synthesis. This novel method provides a purification step using cation exchange resin in combination with a rapid and easy derivatization procedure for a precise and robust measurement of the concentration and isotopic enrichments of NO synthesis-specific amino acids using a liquid chromatography mass spectrometry (LC/MS) ion trap system with high sensitivity and selectivity. The ethyl chloroformate derivatization procedure is beneficial in terms of robustness, velocity, simplicity, and derivative stability. In addition, the ethyl chloroformate derivatization can be performed at room temperature in an aqueous environment without incubation and the isolation of the derivatives from the reaction mixture also serves as a purification step. The concentration and enrichment of NO synthesis-specific amino acids as well as phenylalanine and tyrosine to determine protein turnover, were measured with good inter-day precision for the concentration (<7.4%) and enrichment (<12.7%) in plasma samples at low and high levels. The low limit of quantification was 0.2 μmol/L for most of the amino acids and the purification method showed to have good recoveries between 78% and 98%. No ion-suppression was observed by post-column infusion experiments. In order to develop new nutritional strategies, this novel method can be used to support the elucidation of the effect of administration of specific supplements on the glutamine–citrulline–arginine pathway by using stable isotope studies.