title: Analysis of leukotriene B4 in human lung lavage by HPLC and mass spectrometry.
abstract: Although leukotrienes are believed to mediate symptoms of human lung disease, there is little direct evidence of their existence in the lung. This is due to the difficulty in obtaining lung samples, the small amounts of leukotrienes typically present in such samples and the problems associated with purifying and analyzing leukotrienes in complex biological samples. In this study, lung lavagates were collected and analyzed for leukotrienes. The methods in this analysis included solid phase extraction using a C-18 reverse phase cartridge followed by HPLC using a new photodiode array detector which provides full UV spectra of eluting compounds. Lung lavage fluid from a patient with chronic pulmonary disease contained a compound with a UV spectra of LTB4 which was found to elute with synthetic [3H]-LTB4. This compound was confirmed as LTB4 using gas chromatography/mass spectrometry in the negative ion-chemical ionization mode. The inclusion of oxygen-18 LTB4 as an internal standard allowed approximate quantitation of the amount of LTB4 present in this 5 ml lung lavagate as 40-50 ng.
mesh_terms: D002851:Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid / Q000379:methods; D008401:Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry / Q000379:methods; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007975:Leukotriene B4 / Q000032:analysis*; D008168:Lung / Q000032:analysis*; D013056:Spectrophotometry, Ultraviolet; D007507:Therapeutic Irrigation
chemical_list: D007975:Leukotriene B4