In this study, a novel analytical approach for the determination of 11 monohydroxylated polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon metabolites (OH-PAHs) in urine was developed and validated. The rapid, simple and high-throughput sample preparation procedure based on ethyl acetate extraction and subsequent purification by dispersive solid-phase extraction (d-SPE) employing a Z-Sep sorbent is used for the first time. For the identification/quantification of target compounds, ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography (U-HPLC) interfaced with tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS) was applied. The results of validation experiments performed on the Standard Reference Material (SRM) 3673 (organic contaminants in non-smokers' urine) were in accordance with the certified values. The method recoveries ranged from 77 to 114 % with the relative standard deviation lower than 20 % and the quantification limits in the range of 0.010-0.025 ng mL(-1) (except for benzo[a]pyren-3-ol with 0.9 ng mL(-1)). Within the pilot study, the new method was used for the analysis of OH-PAHs in 50 urine samples. The concentrations of ΣOH-PAHs were in the range of 0.87-63 ng mL(-1) (1600-33,000 ng g(-1) creatinine), with naphthalen-2-ol (2-OH-NAP) and phenanthren-1-ol (1-OH-PHEN) being the most abundant exposure biomarkers detected in all samples.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.