Development of a liquid chromatography/atmospheric pressure photo‐ionization high‐resolution mass spectrometry analytical method for the simultaneous determination of polybrominated diphenyl ethers and their metabolites: application to BDE‐47 metabolism in human hepatocytes

Polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) are flame retardants widely used in electronic and domestic goods. These persistent pollutants are present in the environment and in humans, and their toxicological properties are of growing concern. PBDEs can be metabolised into compounds suspected to be responsible for their toxicity. These metabolites have been characterised quite well in rodents and fish, but available information in humans remains scarce. For their identification, an efficient method for the simultaneous analysis of PBDEs, hydroxylated PBDEs (OH‐PBDEs), and other PBDE metabolites in a single run was needed and has been developed in this work. Atmospheric pressure ionisation modes were compared, and Atmospheric Pressure Photo‐Ionization (APPI) was selected. After careful setting of APPI parameters such as dopant and operating temperature, the optimised method was based on APPI ionization coupled to High‐Resolution Mass Spectrometry operating in the full scan mode at a resolution of 60 000. This provided excellent sensitivity and specificity, allowing the discrimination of signals which could not be resolved on a triple quadrupole used as a reference. The full‐scan high‐resolution acquisition mode allowed monitoring of both parent PBDEs and their metabolites, including hydroxylated PBDEs, with detection limits ranging from 0.1 pg to 4.5 pg injected on‐column based on the investigated standard compounds. The method was applied to the study of BDE‐47 metabolism after incubation with human primary cultures of hepatocytes, and proved to be efficient not only for monitoring the parent compound and expected hydroxylated metabolites, but also for the identification of other non‐targeted metabolites. In addition to hydroxy‐BDE‐47, several conjugated metabolites could be located, and the formation of a dihydrodiol derivative was evidenced for the first time in the case of PBDEs in this work. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.