This review article underlines the detection-oriented derivatization of neutral steroids in liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS). Steroids have strong biological activity at very low concentrations in target tissues and, therefore, the analysis of steroids in body fluids or tissues is necessary to elucidate the nature of the many endocrine disease processes and thus be useful for diagnosis and treatment. LC-MS has recently been used for steroid analysis because of its specificity and versatility, but the ionization efficiencies of most steroids are relatively low for the different ionization methods. Derivatization enhances the ionization efficiencies of steroids, leading to high sensitivity and specific detection. For electrospray ionization MS the introduction of permanently charged moieties or easily ionizable moieties effectively increases the sensitivity of detection of steroids. The introduction of moieties with proton affinity or electron affinity enhances the analyte signals in positive and negative atmospheric pressure chemical ionization MS, respectively.

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A sensitive liquid chromatography-electrospray ionization-tandem mass spectrometric (LC-ESI-MS/MS) method for the determination of 25-hydroxyvitamin D(3) [25(OH)D(3)] in human saliva has been developed and validated. The saliva was deproteinized with acetonitrile, purified using a Strata-X cartridge, derivatized with a Cookson-type reagent, 4-phenyl-1,2,4-triazoline-3,5-dione (PTAD), and subjected to LC-MS/MS. The PTAD derivative was much more easily ionized in positive-ESI-MS and efficiently produced a characteristic product ion during MS/MS, compared to the intact 25(OH)D(3). Methylamine was used as the mobile phase additive, and also effectively enhanced the assay sensitivity. Quantification was based on selected reaction monitoring, and 25-hydroxyvitamin D(4) was used as the internal standard. This method allowed the reproducible and accurate quantification of salivary 25(OH)D(3) using a 1.0-ml sample, and the limit of quantitation for 25(OH)D(3) was 2.0 pg/ml. The applicability of the developed method for clinical studies was then examined. There was a positive linear relationship (r (2) = 0.830) between the serum 25(OH)D(3) level, which is conventionally used as a means of assessing the vitamin D status, and the salivary 25(OH)D(3) level measured using the proposed method. The method also enabled the detection of the increase in the salivary 25(OH)D(3) level after the supplementation of vitamin D(3).

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