title: Determination of Delta9-tetrahydrocannabinol from rabbit plasma by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry using two ionization techniques.
abstract: The purpose of the study was to develop a gas chromatography-mass spectrometric (GC-MS) method for the identification and quantitation of Delta(9)-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) in rabbit plasma. Two ionization techniques were utilized for GC-MS: electron impact ionization (EI) after i.v. administration and negative chemical ionization (NCI) after sublingual administration. THC was isolated from plasma by solid phase extraction and derivatized by either trimethylsilylation (EI) or trifuoroacetylation (NCI), with deuterated THC as an internal standard. The validity of analytical method was confirmed by investigating selectivity, limit of quantitation, linearity, accuracy, precision, recovery and stability of the analyte. The method proved to be selective, linear, accurate and precise over a range of 10-430 and 0.3-530 ng/ml of THC in plasma for EI and NCI, respectively. The extraction recovery was >81% for each concentration level studied, and the analyte was shown to be stable during storage and sample preparation. The method was applied successfully in analysing THC from rabbit plasma.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, University of Kuopio, P.O. Box 1627, FIN-70211 Kuopio, Finland. janne.mannila@uku.fi
authors.forename: Janne
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Mannila
authors.forename: Marko
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Lehtonen
authors.forename: Tomi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Järvinen
authors.forename: Pekka
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Jarho
mesh_terms: D000042:Absorption; D000286:Administration, Sublingual; D000818:Animals; D002138:Calibration; D013759:Dronabinol / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000097:blood* / Q000493:pharmacokinetics; D008401:Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry; D006213:Hallucinogens / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000097:blood* / Q000493:pharmacokinetics; D006801:Humans; D007275:Injections, Intravenous; D011786:Quality Control; D011817:Rabbits; D012015:Reference Standards; D015203:Reproducibility of Results
chemical_list: D006213:Hallucinogens; D013759:Dronabinol