Quantitative Analysis of Thyroid Hormone Metabolites in Cell Culture Samples Using LC-MS/MS

Abstract

A liquid-liquid extraction and liquid chromatography-electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) method to determine iodothyronines and thyronamines (TAM) from cell culture media was developed. Thyroid hormones (TH) are metabolized by sequential deiodination to eventually yield thyronine (T₀), but can also be decarboxylated, resulting in TAM. The method presented here for extraction of DMEM/F12 cell culture media is a fundamental procedure for a precise determination of 9 TH and 6 TAM from a single LC run. Analytes and internal standards (IS) were extracted from DMEM/F12 (w/o phenol red) by liquid-liquid extraction using isopropanol-TBME (30:70 v/v). Measurement of TH and TAM was performed during a 10-min run time using ¹³C₆-T₄, ¹³C₆-T₃, ¹³C₆-rT₃, ¹³C₆-3,3′T₂ and ²H₄-T₁AM as IS. Calibration curves covered 11 calibrators measured as triplicates each for the analysis of the 9 TH and 6 TAM metabolites, and the 5 IS were linear and reproducible in the range of 0.12-120 n<smlcap>M</smlcap> (R² 0.991-0.999) for all calibrators. The lower limit of quantification was 0.078-0.234 n<smlcap>M</smlcap>. Method validation and robustness were demonstrated by the analysis of precision, accuracy, process efficiency, matrix effects and recoveries, as well as intra- and interassay stability. These parameters were investigated for high, middle and low concentrations of quality controls of all 9 TH and 6 TAM metabolites. This validated, sensitive and interaction-free LC-MS/MS method allows rapid analysis and accurate determination of TH and TAM from DMEM/F12 (w/o phenol red) conditioned media and seems to be easily transferable and applied to commonly used buffers and cell culture media.