Biological & Pharmaceutical Bulletin 2007-10-01

Electrospray ionization and time-of-flight mass spectrometric method for simultaneous determination of spermidine and spermine.

Keijiro Samejima, Masahiro Otani, Yasuko Murakami, Takami Oka, Misao Kasai, Hiroki Tsumoto, Kohfuku Kohda

Index: Biol. Pharm. Bull. 30(10) , 1943-6, (2007)

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Abstract

A sensitive method for the determination of polyamines in mammalian cells was described using electrospray ionization and time-of-flight mass spectrometer. This method was 50-fold more sensitive than the previous method using ionspray ionization and quadrupole mass spectrometer. The method employed the partial purification and derivatization of polyamines, but allowed a measurement of multiple samples which contained picomol amounts of polyamines. Time required for data acquisition of one sample was approximately 2 min. The method was successfully applied for the determination of reduced spermidine and spermine contents in cultured cells under the inhibition of aminopropyltransferases. In addition, a new proper internal standard was proposed for the tracer experiment using (15)N-labeled polyamines.