Heit Claire, Eriksson Peter, Thompson David C, Charkoftaki Georgia, Fritz Kristofer S, Vasiliou Vasilis
Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, School of Pharmacy, University of Colorado Denver, Aurora, Colorado.
Department of Public Health, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland.
Alcohol Clin Exp Res. 2016 Sep;40(9):1825-31. doi: 10.1111/acer.13156. Epub 2016 Aug 8.
There is controversy regarding the active agent responsible for alcohol addiction. The theory that ethanol (EtOH) itself was the agent in alcohol drinking behavior was widely accepted until acetaldehyde (AcH) was found in the brain. The importance of AcH formation in the brain is still subject to speculation due to the lack of a method to accurately assay the AcH levels directly. A highly sensitive gas chromatography mass spectrometry (GC-MS) method to reliably determine AcH concentration with certainty is needed to address whether neural AcH is indeed responsible for increased alcohol consumption.
A headspace gas chromatograph coupled to selected-ion monitoring MS was utilized to develop a quantitative assay for AcH and EtOH. Our GC-MS approach was carried out using a Bruker Scion 436-GC SQ MS.
Our approach yields limits of detection of AcH in the nanomolar range and limits of quantification in the low micromolar range. Our linear calibration includes 5 concentrations with a least-square regression greater than 0.99 for both AcH and EtOH. Tissue analyses using this method revealed the capacity to quantify EtOH and AcH in blood, brain, and liver tissue from mice.
By allowing quantification of very low concentrations, this method may be used to examine the formation of EtOH metabolites, specifically AcH, in murine brain tissue in alcohol research.
关于导致酒精成瘾的活性剂存在争议。在大脑中发现乙醛（AcH）之前，乙醇（EtOH）本身是饮酒行为中的活性剂这一理论被广泛接受。由于缺乏直接准确测定AcH水平的方法，大脑中AcH形成的重要性仍有待推测。需要一种高度灵敏的气相色谱 - 质谱联用（GC - MS）方法来可靠地确定AcH浓度，以解决神经AcH是否确实导致酒精摄入量增加的问题。
使用顶空气相色谱仪与选择离子监测质谱联用开发一种用于测定AcH和EtOH的定量分析方法。我们的GC - MS方法是使用布鲁克Scion 436 - GC SQ MS进行的。
我们的方法检测限在纳摩尔范围内，定量限在低微摩尔范围内。我们的线性校准包括5个浓度，AcH和EtOH的最小二乘回归均大于0.99。使用该方法进行的组织分析显示能够对小鼠血液、大脑和肝脏组织中的EtOH和AcH进行定量。
通过能够对极低浓度进行定量，该方法可用于酒精研究中检测小鼠脑组织中EtOH代谢产物，特别是AcH的形成。
