Fabric phase sorptive extraction combined with high-performance-liquid chromatography-photodiode array analysis for the determination of seven parabens in human breast tissues: Application to cancerous and non-cancerous samples.

An improved pretreatment approach of human breast tissue is demonstrated for subsequent analysis of seven parabens including methyl paraben (MPB), ethyl paraben (EPB), propyl paraben (PPB), butyl paraben (BPB), isopropyl paraben (iPPB), isobutyl paraben (iBPB), and benzyl paraben (BzPB). Specifically, a well-designed homogenization procedure, conjugated with an optimized fabric phase sorptive extraction (FPSE) protocol, resulted in a carefully outlined sample preparation process as part of a green, simple, sensitive, economical and fast HPLC-PDA analytical method in agreement with Green Analytical Chemistry (GAC) demands. Among all tested FPSE membranes, the highest extraction efficiency was achieved by employing sol-gel poly(tetrahydrofuran) (sol-gel PTHF) coating on 100% cotton cellulose fabric that represents a medium polarity microextraction device, which combined the advanced material characteristics of sol-gel sorbent and the rich surface chemistry of an inherent porous cellulose fabric substrate. The chromatographic separation was accomplished with a Spherisorb C18 column and an isocratic mobile phase consisted of ammonium acetate and acetonitrile at a flow rate of 1.4 mL/min. The total analysis time was 13.6 min. The analytical adequacy of the composite sample preparation and chromatographic separation method was strongly evidenced by its successful application in the bioanalysis of real cancerous and non-cancerous tissue samples originated from different sub regions of human breast including axila, the upper left and the right quadrant. In all samples, at least one paraben was detected, while 35% of the samples were tested positive for all seven target parabens. Moreover, concentration levels of parabens in cancerous tissues were unambiguously higher than in healthy tissues. The obtained results underlined bioaccumulation potential of parabens in human breast tissue as a consequence of constant low-dose exposure of humans, despite the statutory concentration limits. The developed methodology has demonstrated to be suitable and efficient for future epidemiological and toxicological studies.