A rapid and simple method for quantitation of urinary hydroxylysyl glycosides, indicators of collagen turnover, using liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry

Some glycosides of hydroxylysine, viz., alpha -1,2-glucosylgalactosyl-O-hydroxylysine and beta -1-galactosyl-O-hydroxylysine, appear to be good indicators of collagen turnover. A simple liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry (LC/MS/MS) method is proposed for measuring these analytes in urine, with no sample preparation except for a dilution step. Quantitation is performed using external calibration with no internal standard. A preliminary survey indicates good intra- and inter-day reproducibility (better than 5 and 8%, respectively), With the present method, the estimated limits of detection (S/N > 3) in urine are 0.8 and 0.5 muM/L for beta -1-galactosyl-O-hydroxylysine and alpha -1,2-glucosylgalactosyl-O-hydroxylysine, respectively. The method is proposed as a robust tool for a large-scale research investigation on collagen turnover. Copyright (C) 2000 John Whey & Sons, Ltd.