Toxicant exposure during pregnancy increases protective proteins in the dam and a sexually dimorphic response in the fetus.

Endocrine disrupting compounds (EDCs) are ubiquitous environmental pollutants that alter endocrine system function, induce birth defects, and a myriad of other negative health outcomes. Although the mechanism of toxicity of many EDCs have been studied in detail, little work has focused on understanding the mechanisms through which pregnant dams and fetuses protect themselves from EDCs, or if those protective mechanisms are sexually dimorphic in fetuses. In this study, we examined proteomic alterations in the livers of mouse dams and their male and female fetuses induced by vinclozolin, a model antiandrogenic EDC.

Maternal obesity alters placental lysophosphatidylcholines, lipid storage, and the expression of genes associated with lipid metabolism‡.

Dyslipidemia is a characteristic of maternal obesity and previous studies have demonstrated abnormalities in fatty acid oxidation and storage in term placentas. However, there is little information about the effect of pre-pregnancy obesity on placental lipid metabolism during early pregnancy. The objective of this study was to determine the relationship between lipid profiles and markers of metabolism in placentas from obese and lean dams at midgestation.

MICROSCALE SERUM EXTRACTION METHOD FOR THE SIMULTANEOUS ANALYSIS OF CORTICOSTERONE AND LIPIDS.

Corticosterone is an important steroid for the regulation of metabolism and stress response. Existing methods for the measurement of corticosterone include radioimmunoassay (RIA), enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), and liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS). While each of these approaches have their advantages, RIAs use radioactive isotopes that necessitate specially regulated usage and disposal.

Liquid chromatography-ion mobility spectrometry-mass spectrometry analysis of multiple classes of steroid hormone isomers in a mixture.

Methods for the analysis of steroids have long been of interest due to the multiple uses for such methods in medical applications, sports monitoring, and environmental science. The analysis of steroids involves inherent analytical hurdles due to their low biological concentrations, poor ionization efficiencies, and frequent occurrence of isomerism. One analytical technique that has been recently applied to steroid analysis is ion mobility spectrometry (IMS).

Steroid analysis by ion mobility spectrometry.

Steroids are an important biomolecule class for analysis due to their promise as biomarkers for various diseases and their abuse as performance enhancers in sports. Current analytical methods, including chromatography and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, fall short of being able to confidently analyze steroids, partly due to the large number of steroid isomers. Ion mobility spectrometry (IMS), a gas-phase ion separator, has shown potential for steroid analysis both in conjunction with liquid chromatography (LC) and as a stand-alone technique.

Ion Mobility Spectrometry and Tandem Mass Spectrometry Analysis of Estradiol Glucuronide Isomers.

Estradiol is an estrogenic steroid that can undergo glucuronidation at two different sites, which results in two estradiol glucuronide regioisomers. These isomers can be produced by different enzymes and can have different biological activities before being eliminated from the body. Although there have been previous methods that can distinguish the two isomers, these methods often have long acquisition times or high cost per analysis.

Formation of multimeric steroid metal adducts and implications for isomer mixture separation by traveling wave ion mobility spectrometry.

Steroid analysis is essential to the fields of medicine and forensics, but such analyses can present some complex analytical challenges. While chromatographic methods require long acquisition times and often provide incomplete separation, ion mobility spectrometry (IMS) as coupled to mass spectrometry (MS) has demonstrated significant promise for the separation of steroids, particularly in concert with metal adduction and multimerization. In this study, traveling wave ion mobility spectrometry (TWIMS) was employed to separate multimer steroid metal adducts of isomers in mixtures.

Application of Group I Metal Adduction to the Separation of Steroids by Traveling Wave Ion Mobility Spectrometry.

Steroids represent an interesting class of small biomolecules due to their use as biomarkers and their status as scheduled drugs. Although the analysis of steroids is complicated by the potential for many isomers, ion mobility spectrometry (IMS) has previously shown promise for the rapid separation of steroid isomers. This work is aimed at the further development of IMS separation for the analysis of steroids.