New derivatives of prostaglandin A1 and specific detection of prostaglandin A's and 19-hydroxylated prostaglandin A's in human semen

Abstract

The derivatization of prostaglandins of the A series with 1:1 mixtures of bis-(trimethylsilyl)trifluoroacetamide and nitrogen-containing non-aromatic heterocyclics such as piperidine, pyrrolidine, morpholine and hexamethylenimine (1--4 h at 60--70 degrees C) gives new types of derivatives, designated as 11-heterocycle, 9-enol PGA (TMS)3. These derivatives show very simplified and characteristic mass spectral patterns strikingly dominated by a common [M-173]+ fragment ion and easily detectable by selected ion monitoring. This feature allows the concurrent analytical detection of both prostaglandin A's and 19-hydroxy prostaglandin A's in biological samples. In this case 2 ml samples of human semen were extracted by direct ultrafiltration on a Pellicon membrane with a nominal molecular weight limit of 1000. The prostaglandins in the approximately or equal to 1.6 ml of ultrafiltrate thus obtained were recovered in ethyl acetate, derivatized as indicated above and detected by monitoring of the corresponding [M-173]+ ions.