Simultaneous determination of endocannabinoids (arachidonylethanolamide and 2-arachidonylglycerol) and isoprostane (8-epiprostaglandin F2alpha) by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry-selected ion monitoring for medical samples

This article describes the overall procedure for the simultaneous determination of endocannabinoids (arachidonylethanolamide and 2-arachidonyglycerol) and isoprostane by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry in the selected-ion monitoring SIM mode (GC-MS-SIM) for medical samples. It also describes the general points of this method which a scientist who wants to assay a new, unidentified prostanoids and related compounds in medical samples would need to be clarified. The similar structures of prostaglandins, thromboxane, their metabolites, isoprostane, and arachidonyl compounds, allow them to be assayed after the simultaneous preparation of a single sample. The dimethyl isopropylsilyl ether forms of derivatized compounds are suitable for multiple GC-MS-SIM assay because of their molecular stability, and because they produce positive, strong, and large fragments on MS.