Quantitation of dimethylnitrosamine in the whole mouse after biosynthesis in vivo from trace levels of precursors.

A simple and highly sensitive procedure is described for the recovery and quantitative identification of nanogram quantities of preformed N-nitroso compounds in the whole mouse. This procedure has also been applied to the quantitation of N-nitroso compounds after they have been biosynthesized from trace amounts of precursors. The whole animal is frozen in liquid nitrogen and homogenized to a frozen powder; the powder is then extracted and analyzed by a thermal energy analyzer interfaced to a gas-liquid and a high-pressure liquid chromatograph.