Mass-fragmentography of nanogram quantities of biogenic amine metabolites in human cerebrospinal fluid and whole rat brain

A mass fragmentographic method is described for the simultaneous assay of both the acidic and alcoholic metabolites of tyramine, octopamine, dopamine and norepinephrine. The method was successfully applied for the measurement of nanogram quantities of these metabolites in human ventricular and lumbar cerebrospinal fluids and in the rat brain. Mass fragmentography was carried out on the methyl ester/pentafluoroproprionyl derivatives of the acidic and the pentafluoropropionyl derivatives of the alcoholic metabolites, employing an 8 ft 3% SE-54 column. Chemical methods for the synthesis of a number of deuterated isomers (isotopomers) of the above metabolites are also described. These isotopomers were utilized as internal reference standards for the assay of the metabolites in biological materials. They were also used to study the fragmentation reactions of these metabolite derivatives.