Simplified Liquid Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry Methods for Gestagen Analysis in Animal Fat and Liver.

Gestagens, a class of veterinary drugs also called progestogens, are synthetic hormones used to increase feed efficiency and rate of gain in heifers. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency analyzes progestogens melengestrol acetate (MGA), megestrol acetate, and chlormadinone acetate using liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS). Our conventional gestagen method for kidney fat has many time-consuming steps, including solid-phase extraction. A sample preparation procedure having fewer clean-up steps was developed for routine diagnostic analysis of kidney fat and provided similar results faster, and at lower cost. A confirmatory liver method for gestagens, developed using salt-assisted extraction, employed minimal clean-up steps that resulted in high chemical background at the desired lower limit of quantification (LLOQ). Differential ion mobility spectrometry, specifically high-field asymmetric waveform ion mobility spectrometry (FAIMS), was used to filter chemical background in the gas phase. The effect of the ionization probe position on FAIMS parameters, including sensitivity, is described. With LC-FAIMS-MS, chemical background for each gestagen was virtually eliminated, resulting in a quantitative liver method having the desired 0.6 ng/g LLOQ and estimated limits of detection (LODs) up to 140 times lower than LC-MS. Incurred MGA samples, analyzed using kidney fat and liver methods from the same animal, show levels within the quantitative ranges of both methods.

The Analysis of Phenylbutazone and Its Active Metabolite, Oxyphenbutazone, in Equine Tissues (Muscle, Kidney, and Liver), Urine, and Serum by LC-MS/MS.

This study reports the use of two validated LC with tandem MS (MS/MS) methods to study the residue depletion profile of phenylbutazone (PBZ) and its metabolite oxyphenbutazone (OXPBZ) from equine serum, urine, and muscle, kidney, and liver tissues. One LC-MS/MS method, with an LOQ of 1.0 ng/mL for PBZ and 2.0 ng/mL for OXPBZ, was used for the analysis of the two drugs in the biological fluids (equine urine and serum); the other LC-MS/MS method, with an LOQ of 0.5 ng/g for PBZ and OXPBZ, was used for the analysis of the drugs in the equine tissue samples. PBZ was administered intravenously to two horses dosed with 8.8 mg/kg PBZ once daily for 4 days and sacrificed humanely at a slaughter plant 7 days after the last drug administration. Urine, serum, and kidney, liver, and muscle tissues were collected from the two horses and shipped on ice to the laboratory and stored at -20°C until analysis. The concentrations of PBZ and OXPBZ residues in the biological fluid and tissue samples collected at slaughter were measured with the two validated LC-MS/MS methods using deuterated internal standards. The results demonstrate that the validated methods are fit for studying the depletion kinetics of PBZ residues in equine tissues and biological fluids.

Analysis of phenylbutazone residues in horse tissues with and without enzyme-hydrolysis by LC-MS/MS.

Phenylbutazone (PBZ) is permitted to be used for the treatment of musculoskeletal pain and inflammation in race horses but it is not approved for use in horses destined for human consumption. In a recent study initiated in our laboratory to study the disposition of PBZ and its oxyphenbutazone (OXPBZ) metabolite in equine tissues, we compared the effect of an additional enzymatic hydrolysis step with ß-glucuronidase on the results of the analysis for PBZ without enzymatic hydrolysis. Incurred tissue samples obtained from a female horse dosed with PBZ at 8.8 mg/kg for 3 days and sacrificed 6 days following the last administration were used for this study. Liver, kidney, and muscle tissues were collected, extracted, cleaned up on a silica-based solid-phase extraction (SPE) preceded by a weak-anion exchange SPE and analyzed with our in-house validated liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) method for PBZ and OXPBZ. Addition of the hydrolysis step resulted in a significant increase in recovery of both PBZ and OXPBZ residues. © 2016 Her Majesty the Queen in Right of Canada. Drug Testing and Analysis © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.