A high selective and sensitive liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry method for quantization of BPA urinary levels in children.

A selective and highly sensitive liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry method has been developed and validated for determination of Bisphenol A (BPA) in human urine using labeled d6-BPA as internal standard. BPA was purified from human urine by affinity chromatography on solid extraction AFFINIMIP® Bisphenol A cartridges, based on molecularly imprinted polymers. After purification, the samples were analyzed on a Phenomenex Kinetex 100 × 4.6 mm, 2.6 μm particle PFP reversed-phase HPLC column, coupled to a triple quadrupole mass spectrometer by an electrospray ion source. Analyses were performed in the multiple reaction monitoring mode and negative ionization; the product ions at 133.2 and 212.1 m/z for BPA and at 138.2 and 215.0 m/z for d6-BPA were monitored to assess unambiguous identification. The linearity of the detector response was verified in human urine over the concentration range 0.100-200 ng/mL. The detection limit was calculated as 0.03 ng/mL and the limit of quantification of the method is 0.10 ng/mL. This LC/ESI-MS/MS method was in-house validated evaluating specificity, trueness, within-day and between-days precision. The mean recoveries of BPA from spiked urine samples were higher than 94% and good reproducibility (relative standard deviations ≤ 8.1%) was observed. The developed method was applied to a pilot study involving 105 children, aged from 6 to 14 years (16 normal weight and 89 obese children), from the Regione Campania (Southern Italy). The aim of this study was to determine the concentrations of BPA in urine of children and possible correlations with childhood obesity.