A method for determination of one hundred endogenous steroids in human serum by gas chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry.

Abstract

Steroid profiling helps various pathologies to be rapidly diagnosed. Results from analyses investigating steroidogenic pathways may be used as a tool for uncovering pathology causations and proposals of new therapeutic approaches. The purpose of this study was to address still underutilized application of the advanced GC-MS/MS platform for the multicomponent quantification of endogenous steroids. We developed and validated a GC-MS/MS method for the quantification of 58 unconjugated steroids and 42 polar conjugates of steroids (after hydrolysis) in human blood. The present method was validated not only for blood of men and non-pregnant women but also for blood of pregnant women and for mixed umbilical cord blood. The spectrum of analytes includes common hormones operating via nuclear receptors as well as other bioactive substances like immunomodulatory and neuroactive steroids. Our present results are comparable with those from our previously published GC-MS method as well as the results of others. The present method was extended for corticoids and 17α-hydroxylated 5α/β-reduced pregnanes, which are useful for the investigation of alternative “backdoor” pathway. When comparing the analytical characteristics of the present and previous method, the first exhibit by far higher selectivity, and generally higher sensitivity and better precision particularly for 17α-hydroxysteroids.