Nitrite In Human Plasma Research Articles

Stable-isotope dilution LC-MS/MS measurement of nitrite in human plasma after its conversion to S-nitrosoglutathione.

A specific, sensitive and fast LC-MS/MS method with positive electrospray ionization for the quantitative determination of nitrite in human plasma is reported. Added [(15)N]nitrite served as the internal standard (IS). Endogenous nitrite and IS were converted to their S-nitrosoglutathione (GSNO) derivatives, i.e., GS(14)NO and GS(15)NO, respectively, by using excess glutathione (GSH) and HCl. For plasmatic nitrite, fresh plasma (0.5 mL) was spiked with the IS (1000 nM) and ultrafiltered (cut-off 10 kDa). Ultrafiltrate aliquots (100 μL) were treated with aqueous GSH at a final concentration of 1 mM and 1 μL of 5M HCl for 5 min. After final sample dilution (1:1, v/v) with acetonitrile-water (70:30, v/v), 2 μL aliquots were injected via a thermostated (4 °C) autosampler. The mobile phase was acetonitrile-water (70:30, v/v), contained 20mM ammonium formate, had a pH value of 7, and was pumped isocratically at 0.5 mL/min. A Nucleoshell column was used for LC separation. The retention time of GSNO was about 0.8 min and the total analysis time 5 min. Quantification was performed by selected-reaction monitoring the specific mass transition m/z337([M+H](+))→m/z 307([M+H-(14)NO](+·)) for GS(14)NO (i.e., for endogenous nitrite) and m/z338([M+H](+))→m/z307([M+H-(15)NO](+·)) for GS(15)NO (i.e., for the IS). The method was thoroughly validated in human plasma (range, 0-2000 nM). The LOD and LOQ values of the LC-MS/MS method were determined to be 1 fmol and 5 nM [(15)N]nitrite, respectively. The relative matrix-effect of about 21% was outweighed entirely by the IS. In freshly prepared plasma samples from heparinized blood donated by three healthy subjects, nitrite concentration was determined by LC-MS/MS to be 516, 199 and 369 nM. These concentrations were confirmed by using a previously reported GC-MS method and agree with those measured previously by HPLC-UV (334 nm) after nitrite conversion to S-nitroso-N-acetylcysteine (SNAC) by N-acetylcysteine (NAC). Measurement of nitrite by LC-MS/MS as GSNO is about 1000 times more sensitive than by HPLC-UV as SNAC. The applicability of the method to microdialysate, urine, and saliva samples from humans was demonstrated. The agreement of two orthogonal MS-based methods indicates that the concentration of nitrite in freshly prepared, non-frozen plasma from heparinized blood of fasted healthy humans is of the order of 400 nM.

Measurement of nitrite in plasma and serum: still a challenging analytical task

Measurement of nitrite in plasma and serum: still a challenging analytical task

A fast and sensitive method for the determination of nitrite in human plasma by capillary electrophoresis with fluorescence detection

Analysis of nitrite, the indicator of nitric oxide (NO) generation in vivo, provides a useful tool to study NO synthesis in vivo. A fast and sensitive fluorometric CE method was developed for determination of nitrite in human plasma through its derivatization with 2,3-diaminonaphthalene (DAN). Nitrite in human plasma was easily reacted with DAN under acid conditions to yield the highly fluorescent 2,3-naphthotriazole (NAT). Fluorescence detection was optimized to achieve subnanomolar detection which allows a direct analysis of plasma samples unlike most CE–UV methods using sample stacking. Acetonitrile was used to remove the protein. Short-end injection and a high voltage (−30kV) were used to shorten the analysis time. The good separation was achieved with 20mM borate buffer at pH 9.23. The separation of NAT was obtained within 1.4min. The deproteinized plasma sample was injected hydrodynamically for 5s at −50mbar into a 60cm×75μm internal diameter uncoated fused-silica capillary. Excitation wavelength was selected with a broad-band filter (240–400nm), and the emitted light was measured at 418nm by the use of a cutoff filter. A good linearity (R2=0.9975) was obtained in the range from 2 to 500nM. The detection limit of nitrite was 0.6nM in original plasma samples, which is 750 times lower than our previous CE–UV method. The developed fluorometric CE method offers the advantages of more simple system and lower cost compared with the current fluorometric HPLC methods without losing sensitivity. The detected mean nitrite concentration in human plasma by this method was consistent with the most frequently reported values.

Adaptation of the Griess Reaction for Detection of Nitrite in Human Plasma

The determination of nitrite in human plasma or serum has been most frequently used as a marker of nitric oxide (NO) production. In addition, it has recently been suggested that nitrite could act as a vasodilating agent at physiological concentrations by NO delivery. Therefore, nitrite determination in biological fluids is becoming increasingly important. The most frequently used method to measure nitrite is based on the spectrophotometric analysis of the azo dye obtained after reaction with the Griess reagent. This method has some limitations regarding detection limit and sensitivity, thus resulting unsuitable for nitrite detection in plasma. We have identified some drawbacks and modified the original procedure to overcome these problems. By the use of the newly developed method, we measured 221±72 nM nitrite in human plasma from healthy donors.

Simultaneous determination of nitrate and nitrite in human plasma by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry.

We devised a sensitive and simple method for the simultaneous determination of nitrate and nitrite in human plasma, using extractive alkylation. These inorganic anions were alkylated with pentafluorobenzyl bromide, using tetradecyldimethylbenzylammonium chloride as the phase-transfer catalyst, with 1,3,5-tribromobenzene as an internal standard. The derivatives were analyzed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry, using the negative-ion chemical ionization mode with isobutane as the reagent gas. Calibration curves for nitrate and nitrite were linear over the concentration range of 0.01 to 1.0 micromol/mL in plasma, and the lower limit of detection for both compounds was 0.005 micromol/mL. The accuracy and precision of this method were evaluated and coefficients of variation were lower than 10.4%. Blood nitrate and nitrite concentrations of six victims who committed suicide by inhaling automobile exhaust gas could be determined using our method.