Analysis of organic acids and other anions in liver and plasma by ion chromatography (IC) coupled to ion-conductivity detector (CD) and high-resolution mass spectrometer (HRMS)

Julius Ben Ari, Faculty of Agriculture, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Rehovot, Israel (masstocharge@gmail.com)

Traditionally, analysis of polar organic acids in complex biological samples is carried out using GC-MS or GC-MS/MS techniques involving chemical derivatizations of analytes. This approach however often suffers from poor reproducibility. Herein there is demonstrated an application for reliable, reproducible and sensitive determination and quantification of polar organic acids in liver and plasma samples by IC-HRMS with addition of isotopically labeled standards. Moreover, we show that connecting consequently CD and HRMS detectors it is possible to achieve few goals in a single run: to confirm the presence of analyte detected at any concentration by HRMS, to quantify accurately organic acids detected at levels of ng/ml by HRMS and, to determine other anions (including inorganic) at levels of µg/ml using CD.