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Analysis of 19-nortestosterone residue in animal tissues by ion-trap gas chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry

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Abstract

A rapid sample treatment procedure for the gas chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (GC-MS) determination of 19-nortestosterone (19-NT) in animal tissues has been developed. In our optimized procedures, enzymatic hydrolysis with β-glucuronidase from Escherichia coli was performed in an acetate buffer (pH 5.2, 0.2 mol/L). Next, the homogenate was mixed with methanol and heated at 60 °C for 15 min, then placed in an ice-bath at −18 °C for 2 h. After liquid-liquid extraction with n-hexane, the analytes were subjected to a normal-phase solid phase extraction (SPE) C18 cartridge for clean-up. The dried organic extracts were derivatized with heptafluorobutyric anhydride (HFBA), and then the products were injected into GC-MS. Using electron impact mass spectrometry (EI-MS) with positive chemical ionization (PCI), four diagnostic ions (m/z 666, 453, 318, and 306) were determined. A standard calibration curve over the concentration range of 1–20 ng/g was reached, with Y=467 084X-68 354 (R 2=0.999 7) for 19-NT, and the detection limit was 0.3 ng. When applied to spiked samples collected from bovine and ovine, the recoveries ranged from 63% to 101% with relative standard deviation (RSD) between 2.7% and 8.9%. The procedure is a highly efficient, sensitive, and more economical method which offers considerable potential to resolve cases of suspected nandrolone doping in husbandry animals.

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Correspondence to Zi-liang Wang or Jian-hua Wang.

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The two authors contributed equally to this work

Project supported by the Eleventh Five-Year Plan for National Science and Technology of China (No. 2006BAK02A21/1) and the Henan Innovation Project for University Prominent Research Talents (No.2010HASTIT026), China

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Jiang, Jq., Zhang, L., Li, Gl. et al. Analysis of 19-nortestosterone residue in animal tissues by ion-trap gas chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry. J. Zhejiang Univ. Sci. B 12, 460–467 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1631/jzus.B1000301

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1631/jzus.B1000301

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