Abstract
Infant exposure to endocrine disruptors (EDs) may cause adverse health effects because of their fast growth and development during this life stage. However, collecting urine from infants for exposure assessment using biological monitoring is not an easy task. For this purpose, we evaluated the feasibility of using urine expressed from disposable gel absorbent diapers (GADs) as a matrix for biomonitoring selected phenolic EDs. GADs urine was expressed with the assistance of CaCl2 and was collected using a device fabricated in our laboratory. The analytes were extracted and concentrated using a liquid-liquid method and their hydroxyl groups were modified by dansyl chloride to enhance their chromatography and detection. Finally, the analytes were measured by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) coupled with electrospray ionization (ESI) tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS). The target chemicals were bisphenol A, triclosan, 17 α-ethynylestradiol, the natural hormone estrone, and 17 β-estradiol. The ratio of the CaCl2 to the urine-wetted gel absorbent, variation of the inter-urination volume, and analyte deposition bias in the diaper were assessed. Analyte blank values in the diapers, the sample storage stabilities, and recoveries of the analytes were also evaluated. The results showed that 70–80 % of the urine could be expressed from the diaper with the assistance of CaCl2 and 70.5–124 % of the spiked analytes can be recovered in the expressed urine. The limits of detections (LODs) were 0.02–0.27 ng/mL, well within the range for detection in human populations. Our pilot data suggest that infants are widely exposed to the selected EDs.
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Acknowledgments
We sincerely thank all the participating parents who provided their infants diaper samples. The present work was sponsored by the Xiamen Science and Technology Foundation (3503Z20124025), Fujian Nature Science of Foundation (2013J01063), Ningbo Science and Technology Fund (2013A610189) and CAS/SAFEA International Partnership Program for Creative Research Teams (KZCX2-YW-T08).
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The authors declare no conflict of interest.
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Liu, L., Xia, T., Zhang, X. et al. Biomonitoring of infant exposure to phenolic endocrine disruptors using urine expressed from disposable gel diapers. Anal Bioanal Chem 406, 5049–5054 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00216-014-7908-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00216-014-7908-3