RESUMEN
An ultra-high performance liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometric ( LC-MS/MS ) method for simultaneous determination of 8 kinds of neurotransmitters (5-HT, GABA, Glu, ACH, NE, DA, 5-HIAA, HVA) in rat serum was developed.The blood samples were extracted by 0.1% formic acid in acetonitrile and separated on a Waters ACQUITY UPLC BEH C18(2.1 mm×100 mm, 1.7 μm) using gradient elution, with the mobile phase consisting of acetonitrile and 0.1% formic acid in water.The samples were then ioniZed with positive electrospray ( ESI+) , and detected under multiple reaction monitoring ( MRM ) mode.As a result, 8 kinds of neurotransmitters were determined accurately in 10 min with a limit of quantitation of 1.8 ng/mL and intra-day and inter-day precisions of ≤9.2% ( n=6 ).This method showed a good linearity in detection of neurotransmitters and the linear correlation coefficients were greater than 0.994.Also the stability, recovery and matrix effect were eligible for the analysis.This method showed high accuracy, sensitivity, strong specificity, good stability, small matrix effect and short time for analysis, and was suitable for the quantitative determination of monoamine, amino acids and acetylcholine neurotransmittes in rat serum.