Determination of glycerol concentrations and glycerol isotopic enrichments in human plasma by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry.

An analytical method is presented to determine glycerol concentrations and stable isotope tracer enrichments in human plasma after intravenous tracer infusion in a single analytical run, using gas chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry. The method uses an internal standard, which is also a stable isotope labeled form of glycerol. Three substances were tested as model compounds viz. [2-13C]glycerol, and [1,2,3-13C3]glycerol, and [1,1,2,3, 3-2H5]glycerol. Any combination of two can be used (one as internal standard, one as tracer), even if overlapping of the mass spectra occurs. The method is precise (recovery of spiked glycerol and tracer are, respectively, 99.7 and 99.8%) and reproducible (intraassay variation <1.5%, interassay variation <6%) and needs only a small amount of plasma (100 microl).