Simultaneous toxicokinetics characterization of acrylamide and its primary metabolites using a novel microdialysis isotope-dilution liquid chromatography mass spectrometry method

Acrylamide (AA) is a toxicant in high-temperature processed foods and an animal carcinogen. Upon absorption, AA is metabolized to glycidamide (GA) or conjugates with glutathione (AA-GSH). Important advantages of microdialysis coupled with liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (MD-LC-MS/MS) include its minimization of potential losses during sample collection, storage and preparation, as well as an improvement in temporal resolution for toxicokinetics (TKs). We aimed to simultaneously study the TKs of AA and products of its primary metabolism using an isotope-dilution (ID) MD-LC-MS/MS method. MD probes implanted into the jugular vein/right atrium of anesthetized Sprague Dawley rats were connected to the ID-LC-MS/MS for continuous monitoring of AA, GA and AA-GSH in the blood every 15 min over 8 h following intraperitoneal AA administration (0.1 mg/kg or 5 mg/kg). AA, GA, and AA-GSH TKs followed linear kinetics: GA AUC/AA AUC = 0.11 and AA-GSH AUC/AA AUC = 0.011 at 5 mg/kg. Elimination half-life (Te1/2) values were 2.44 ± 0.70, 4.93 ± 2.37 and 3.47 ± 1.47 h for AA, GA and AA-GSH, respectively. GA TKs reached a plateau at 3-6 h, suggesting that metabolic saturation of AA and Te1/2 values of the analytes were prolonged with AA at 5 mg/kg. Our results demonstrate that oxidation of AA to GA overwhelmed the conjugation of AA with GSH. Our innovative MD-ID-LC-MS/MS method facilitates the simultaneous characterization of multiple TKs associated with toxicants and their active metabolites with excellent temporal resolution to capture metabolic saturation of AA to GA.