Comparison of biological-derived and synthetic leukotriene C4 by fast atom bombardment mass spectrometry.

The development of the technique of fast atom bombardment mass spectrometry (FAB-MS) has greatly expanded the capability to analyze non-volatile, complex biochemicals. The structure of leukotriene C4, a slow reacting substance of anaphylaxis, has recently been postulated as 6-glutathionyl-5-hydroxy-7,9,11,14-eicosatetraenoic acid. Even though LTC4 has been synthesized, it has not been possible to obtain direct mass spectrometric confirmation of this structure. FAB-MS has indicated that the biological LTC4 had a molecular weight of 625, identical to that of synthetic LTC4. The abundance of cationized species with one and two sodium atoms was the major difference between these leukotrienes which is probably a result of the difference in salt content of the purified molecules.