Estimation of reference intervals of five endocannabinoids and endocannabinoid related compounds in human plasma by two dimensional-LC/MS/MS

• DOI: 10.1194/jlr.m021378
• Publication Date: 2011-12-16T03:15:58Z
• Authors: Flaminia Fanelli; Valentina D. Di L...; Ilaria Belluomo; Rosaria De Iasio; Margherita Baccini; Elena Casadio; Daniela Ibarra Ga...; Michelangelo Cola...; Alessandra Gambineri; Gabriele Grossi; Valentina Vicennati; Renato Pasquali; Uberto Pagotto
• Keywords: 2-Arachidonoylglycerol

The elucidation of the role endocannabinoids in physiological and pathological conditions transferability importance these mediators from basic evidence into clinical practice is still hampered by indefiniteness their circulating reference intervals. In this work, we developed validated a two-dimensional LC/MS/MS method for simultaneous measurement plasma related compounds such as arachidonoyl-ethanolamide, palmitoyl-ethanolamide, oleoyl-ethanolamide, belonging to N-acyl-ethanolamide (NAE) family, 2-arachidonoyl-glycerol its inactive isomer 1-arachidonoyl-glycerol monoacyl-glycerol (MAG) family. We found that several pitfalls endocannabinoid may occur, blood withdrawal processing. Plasma extraction with toluene followed on-line purification was chosen, allowing high-throughput reliability. estimated gender-specific intervals on 121 healthy normal weight subjects fulfilling rigorous anthropometric hematic criteria. observed no gender differences NAEs, whereas significantly higher MAG levels were males compared females. MAGs also correlated triglycerides. NAEs increased age females, arachidonoyl-ethanolamide adiposity metabolic parameters This work paves way establishment definitive help physicians move speculative research field field.