Sensitive and robust UPLC–MS/MS method to determine the gender-dependent pharmacokinetics in rats of emodin and its glucuronide

Wei Liu, Zhijie Zheng, Xi Liu, Song Gao, Ling Ye, Zhen Yang, Ming Hu, Zhongqiu Liu
2011 Journal of Pharmaceutical and Biomedical Analysis  
In this study, a sensitive and robust ultraperformance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS/MS) method was developed, validated, and applied to determine gender-dependent pharmacokinetics of total emodin (aglycone+glucuronide) in male and female Sprague-Dawley rats. The lower limit of quantification for emodin and emodin glucuronide in rat plasma was 39 and 78 ng/ml, with signal-to-noise ratio of ≥ 10. Precision and accuracy studies showed emodin and emodin glucuronide plasma
more » ... concentrations well within the 10% range in all studies. Plasma recovery of emodin and emodin glucuronide was always above 86% for low (emodin: 39 ng/ml; glucuronide: 78 ng/ml), 92% for medium (625 ng/ml), and 97% for high (10000 ng/ml) concentrations. Furthermore, emodin showed more than 95% plasma stability under short-term and long-term storage conditions, as well as after three freeze-thaw cycles in the experiments. The developed and validated analytical method was successfully applied to study the gender-dependent 10-fold higher oral bioavailability of total emodin in male than female rats. The oral bioavailability of emodin and emodin glucuronide was also measured separately and showed a statistically significant gender difference in oral bioavailability of emodin and emodin glucuronide in rats.
doi:10.1016/j.jpba.2010.12.004 pmid:21195574 pmcid:PMC4010304 fatcat:ihtr3rfapzemzot7tn7lxjfm2q