Poly- and perfluoroalkyl substances in maternal serum: Method development and application in Pilot Study of the Japan Environment and Children's Study

Poly- and perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) have been investigated in a number of cohort studies due to concern over their adverse health effects. The aim of this study was to develop a reliable, high throughput and cost-effective analytical method for a broad range of PFAS in human serum. Protein precipitation, automatic solid phase extraction (SPE) pre-treatment and column-switching LC-MS/MS were employed. The optimised and validated method was then used to analyse the levels of 28 PFAS in 339 maternal serum samples from Pilot Study of the Japan Environment and Children's Study. Perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), perfluorononanoic acid (PFNA), perfluoroundecanoic acid (PFUnA) and perfluorooctane sulphonic acid (PFOS) were detected in all 339 samples at median (range) concentrations of 1.9 (0.46-15), 1.5 (0.32-10), 1.3 (0.25-4.5) and 3.7 (0.43-15) ng/ml, respectively. These levels are comparable to those reported in previous studies using samples collected from various parts of the world. With a few exceptions, the remainder of the PFAS examined had lower detection rates but were found at concentrations similar to those reported in previous studies. The sensitivity and throughput ability of the method developed here are sufficient for its application in a large-scale biomonitoring study.