GC/MS Analysis of Anandamide and Quantification of N‐Arachidonoylphosphatidylethanolamides in Various Brain Regions, Spinal Cord, Testis, and Spleen of the Rat

Abstract: Anandamide [N-arachidonoylethanolamide (NAE)] was initially isolated from porcine brain and proposed as an endogenous ligand for cannabinoid receptors in 1992. Accumulating evidence has now suggested that, in the tissue, NAE is generated from N-arachidonoylphosphatidylethanolamides (N-ArPEs) by phosphodiesterase. In this study a sensitive and specific procedure was developed to quantify NAE and N-ArPE, including organic solvent extraction, reversephase C-18 cartridge separation, derivatization, and gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS) analysis. NAE is converted by a two-step derivatization procedure to a pentafluorobenzoyl ester followed by pentafluoropropionyl acylation. Quantification was performed by isotope dilution GC/MS using deuterium-labeled NAE (NAE-2H8) as an internal standard. The same chemical derivatization was applicable to N-ArPE quantification. The separated N-ArPE fractions were converted by a two-step cleavage/derivatization procedure into the pentafluorobenzoyl ester of NAE and then to its pentafluoropropionyl amide. The derivative was quantified by GC/MS using deuterium-labeled 1,2-[2Ha]dioleoyl-sn-glycero-3-phospho(arachidonoyl) ethanolamide as an internal standard. Using these methods, we have found that endogenous NAE levels in rat brain, spleen, testis, liver, lung, and heart were below the level of quantification achievable (0.1 pmol/mg of protein) but that N-ArPE is readily quantifiable and is widely distributed in the rat CNS with the highest level in the spinal cord. The striatum, hippocampus, and accumbens contain intermediate concentrations of N-ArPE, whereas the value is lowest in the cerebellum.