Analysis of sterols by high-performance liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry combined with chemometrics

A newly developed high-performance liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry (HPLC/MS) method has been successfully used to analyze plasma concentrations of various phytosterols (cholestanol and beta-sitosterol) and cholesterol metabolites (desmosterol and lathosterol). This was based on an unusual solvent combination of water/methanol vs. methanol/acetone/n-hexane applied on a Purospher Star RP-18e (125 x 2 mm, 3 microm) column, which proved excellent for the separation, identification and quantification of plasma sterols. Simple solid-phase extraction preparation of plasma samples was performed, followed by the developed fast and robust HPLC separation. Results on four groups of people were…