Development of analytical methods for the gas chromatographic determination of 1,2-epoxy-3-butene, 1,2:3,4-diepoxybutane, 3-butene-1,2-diol, 3,4-epoxybutane-1,2-diol and crotonaldehyde from perfusate samples of 1,3-butadiene exposed isolated mouse and rat livers

Carcinogenicity of 1,3-butadiene (BD) is related to reactive metabolites as 1,2-epoxy-3-butene (EB), 1,2:3,4-diepoxybutane (DEB), 3,4-epoxybutane-1,2-diol (EBD) and crotonaldehyde (CA). Up to now, only instrumentally expensive or less sensitive methods are available for the detection of EB and DEB in BD exposed animals. Therefore, simple methods were developed to determine all of these metabolites and 3-butene-1,2-diol (B-diol), a further BD metabolite, from aqueous systems. EB, DEB and CA and their standards were extracted using dichloromethane. B-diol, EBD and the deuterated analogues were esterified using n-butylboronic acid before extracting with ethyl acetate. All analytes were identified and quantified using GC/MS in the PCI mode. The detection limits were (µmol/L): EB:0.01; DEB:0.01; CA:0.06; EBD:0.02; B-diol:0.02. The applicability of the analytical methods for studying BD metabolism was demonstrated by using isolated BD perfused mouse and rat livers.