Detection of Porphyrins in Hair Using Capillary Liquid Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry

Abstract

Unlike humans, some animals have evolved a physiological ability to deposit porphyrins, which are pigments produced during heme synthesis in cells, in the skin and associated integument such as hair. Given the inert nature and easiness of collection of hair, animals that present porphyrin-based pigmentation constitute unique models for porphyrin analysis in biological samples. Here we present the development of a simple, rapid, and efficient analytical method for four natural porphyrins (uroporphyrin I, coproporphyrin I, coproporphyrin III and protoporphyrin IX) in the Southern flying squirrel Glaucomys volans, a mammal with hair that fluoresces and that we suspected has porphyrin-based pigmentation. The method is based on capillary liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (CLC-MS), after an extraction procedure with formic acid and acetonitrile. The resulting limits of detection (LOD) and quantification (LOQ) were 0.006–0.199 and 0.021–0.665 µg mL−1, respectively. This approach enabled us to quantify porphyrins in flying squirrel hairs at concentrations of 3.6–353.2 µg g−1 with 86.4–98.6% extraction yields. This method provides higher simplicity, precision, selectivity, and sensitivity than other methods used to date, presenting the potential to become the standard technique for porphyrin analysis.

Proximity-based defensive mutualism between Streptomyces and Mesorhizobium by sharing and sequestering iron

“…Despite attempts for several porphyrin extraction methods [ 53 , 63 , 64 ], we did not detect iron-porphyrin in the extracts even from the medium containing exogenous iron-porphyrin complexes such as hemin. In a recent study on cryptic metabolite-driven exploratory growth of Streptomyces venezuelae , the authors also detected the secretion of unmetallated and zinc-bound CPs, but not iron-bound CP or other iron-porphyrins [ 65 ].…”