LAUSR

HIGHLIGHTSFirst method for determination of glycine‐&bgr;‐muricholic acid (Gly‐MCA) in mice plasma by HPLC–MS/MS.This HPLC–MS/MS method is simple, rapid and sensitive, with 5.0 min runtime per sample.The developed method was successfully applied to the pharmacokinetic study of Gly‐MCA in mice. ABSTRACT A simple, sensitive and rapid method using high performance liquid chromatography‐tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC–MS/MS) was developed and validated for quantification of glycine‐&bgr;‐muricholic acid (Gly‐MCA) in mouse plasma for the first time. Plasma samples were pretreated with protein precipitation. The analyte and internal standard were separated on a Shimadzu Shim‐pack XR‐ODS column (4.6 × 50 mm, 2.2 &mgr;m) using 0.1% formic acid‐water‐methanol as mobile phase, with a runtime of 5 min. Detection was performed using negative ion electrospray tandem mass spectrometry via multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) scan mode. The linear range was 5 ng–2 &mgr;g/ml (correlation coefficient >0.995) for Gly‐MCA with a lower limit of quantitation of 5 ng/ml. The intra‐day and inter‐day precision were less than 9.2% for the analyte and accuracy was from 0.4% to 7.0%. This analytical method was then successfully applied to a pharmacokinetic study of Gly‐MCA following oral administration and intraperitoneal injection in mice.