Determination of seventeen free amino acids in human urine and plasma samples using quadruple isotope dilution mass spectrometry combined with hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography – Tandem mass spectrometry

Taking into account the growing demand for new analytical procedures that are appropriate for analysis of complex biological samples with increased sensitivity, accuracy and precision, a novel analytical method was described for the determination of underivatized amino acids in human plasma and urine samples. The presented analytical procedure involved the direct analysis of urine samples and the analysis of plasma samples followed by a simple protein precipitation protocol. Samples were analyzed using a simple and fast chromatographic method developed for the determination of 17 different amino acids by liquid chromatography - tandem mass spectrometry. The limit of detection and quantification values for amino acids were ranged between 0.03–2.26 µmol kg−1 and 0.09–7.54 µmol kg−1. Matrix effects of plasma and urine on the quantification of analytes were determined by spiking experiments. The accuracy of method was evaluated by matrix matching and quadruple isotope dilution strategies. Excellent accuracy and precision were obtained with the use isotope labeled amino acids demonstrating the high reliability and reproducibility of the proposed method. The percent recovery values were found to be between 98.70 - 101.68% with%RSD below than 1.62% for human plasma and 99.14 - 101.78% with%RSD below than 2.44% for urine samples.