Determination of carnitine, its short chain acyl esters and metabolic precursors trimethyllysine and γ-butyrobetaine by quasi-solid phase extraction and MS/MS detection

Abstract For the investigation of the metabolism and biosynthesis of carnitine, sensitive determination of carnitine and its metabolic precursors, trimethyllysine and γ-butyrobetaine, is required. We present here a new simplified method for the analysis of carnitine, its acetyl- and propyl esters, as well as trimethyllysine and γ-butyrobetaine without need for derivatization reactions by means of normal-phase LC and electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry. The limits of quantification were between 5 nM for acetyl carnitine and 70 nM for carnitine. Relative standard deviations in a fivefold determination of standard solutions were between