A Rapid and Sensitive Method of Determination of 1-Hydroxypyrene Glucuronide in Urine by UPLC–FLD

A simple and sensitive method for analysis of 1-OHP-G in urine to evaluate PAHs exposure was established. The urine was extracted with a OASIS PRiME HLB column, and the eluent was directly injected into HPLC–FLD for analysis. The separation was carried out on a ACQUIIY UPLC BEH C18 column (2.1 × 50 mm, 1.7 μm), using methanol–1.5% formic acid water (60:40, v:v) as mobile phase at the flow rate of 0.2 mL/min. 1-OHP-G was detected at the excitation wavelength of 338 nm and the emission wavelength of 379 nm. Good linearity was obtained from 0.010 to 5.0 ng/mL for 1-OHP-G. The limit of detection of 1-OHP-G was 0.0032 ng/mL and the limit of quantification was 0.010 ng/mL. The intra-day and the inter-day precisions were 1.68, 4.98 and 1.81%, 5.00% at the concentrations of 0.010 ng/mL and 5.0 ng/mL, respectively. The proposed method was applied for urine sample analysis and the whole procedure could be completed within 8 min with the recoveries of 91.9–109%, 92.7–107% and 94.5–107% at the concentrations of 0.010 ng/mL, 1.0 ng/mL and 5.0 ng/mL, respectively. The results of 41 urine samples from non-professionals measured with the proposed method and UPLC–MS/MS were compared by Bland–Altman test and Passing–Bablok regression, showing a good agreement between the two methods. Moreover, dynamic change of urinary 1-OHP-G after eating barbecued food was detected by the proposed method and the results were consistent with the reported researches about 1-OHP. The proposed method was simple and rapid, and it could also to meet the assessment of population exposure to PAHs with high sensitivity and accuracy.