LC–MS/MS-based quantification of cholesterol and related metabolites in dried blood for the screening of inborn errors of sterol metabolism

S. Becker, S. Röhnike, S. Empting, D. Haas, K. Mohnike, S. Beblo, U. Mütze, R. A. Husain, J. Thiery, U. Ceglarek

Smith-Lemli-Opitz syndrome (SLOS) is an inherited metabolic disease in the cholesterol biosynthesis pathway which is characterised by accumulation of 7- and 8-dehydrocholesterol and by reduced cholesterol concentrations in all tissues and body fluids. With this study, we developed a new, rapid, robust and high-throughput tandem mass spectrometric method as routine application for the selective SLOS screening and therapy monitoring in serum and dried blood. After protein precipitation of 10 μL serum or 4.7 mm dried blood spot, the sum of 7- and 8-dehydrocholesterol (DHC) was analysed by rapid chromatography combined with tandem mass spectrometry. Method comparison with GC-MS was performed for 46 serum samples. A comparison between serum and corresponding dried blood spots for DHC and cholesterol was performed with 40 samples from SLOS patients. Concentrations of DHC and cholesterol were analysed in 2 dried blood samples from newborns with SLOS and 100 unaffected newborns. Intra- and inter-assay variabilities ranged between 3.7 and 17.7 % for serum and dried blood spots. Significant correlations between the new LC-MS/MS method and GC-MS were determined for DHC (r = 0.937, p < 0.001) and for cholesterol (r = 0.946, p < 0.001). Significant coefficients of correlation between serum and dried blood spot samples above 0.8 were calculated for both analytes. A cut-off value of 5.95 for the ratio of DHC/cholesterol (multiplied by 1000) was found to distinguish newborns diagnosed with SLOS from normal newborns in a retrospective analysis after 5 years. The developed method enables a rapid quantification of the sum parameter 7- and 8-DHC in newborns and SLOS patients under therapy in serum as well as dried blood spot samples.