Development and validation of a fast and sensitive bioanalytical method for the quantitative determination of glucocorticoids—Quantitative measurement of dexamethasone in rabbit ocular matrices by liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry

A sensitive, selective, accurate and robust LC–MS/MS method was developed and validated for the quantitative determination of glucocorticoids in rabbit ocular tissues. Samples were processed by a simple liquid–liquid extraction procedure. Chromatographic separation was performed on Phenomenex reversed phase C18 gemini column (50 mm × 4.6 mm i.d.,) with an isocratic mobile phase composed of 30% of acetonitrile in water containing 0.1% of formic acid, at a flow rate 0.2 mL/min. Dexamethasone (DEX), prednisolone (PD) and hydrocortisone (HD) were detected with proton adducts at m/z 393.20 → 355.30, 361.30 → 147.20 and 363.20 → 121.0 in multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) positive mode respectively. Finally, 50 μL of 0.1% novel DEX mixed micellar formulation was topically administered to a rabbit eye and concentrations were measured. The method was validated over a linear concentration range of 2.7–617.6 ng/mL. Lower limit of quantitation (LLOQ) of DEX and PD was measured in the concentration range of 2.7 and 11.0 ng/mL respectively. The resulting method demonstrated intra and inter-day precision within 13.3% and 11.1% and accuracy within 19.3% and 12.5% for DEX and PD, respectively. Both analytes were found to be stable throughout freeze–thaw cycles and during bench top and postoperative stability studies (r2 > 0.999). DEX concentrations in various ocular tissue samples i.e., aqueous humor, cornea, iris ciliary body, sclera and retina choroid were found to be 344.0, 1050.07, 529.6, 103.9 and 48.5 ng/mg protein respectively. Absorption of DEX after topical administration from a novel aqueous mixed micellar formulation achieved therapeutic concentration levels in posterior segment of the rabbit eye.