PT - JOURNAL ARTICLE AU - Alasmari, Fawaz AU - Alasmari, Abdullah F. AU - Elzayat, Ehab AU - Alotaibi, Majed M. AU - Alotaibi, Farraj M. AU - Attwa, Mohamed W. AU - Alanazi, Fars K. AU - Abdelgadir, Elkhatim H. AU - Ahmad, Syed Rizwan AU - Alqahtani, Faleh AU - AL-Rejaie, Salim S. AU - Alshammari, Musaad A. TI - Nicotine and cotinine quantification after a 4-week inhalation of electronic cigarette vapors in male and female mice using UPLC-MS/MS AID - 10.15537/smj.2022.43.7.20220142 DP - 2022 Jul 01 TA - Saudi Medical Journal PG - 678--686 VI - 43 IP - 7 4099 - http://smj.org.sa/content/43/7/678.short 4100 - http://smj.org.sa/content/43/7/678.full SO - Saudi Med J2022 Jul 01; 43 AB - Objectives: To detect the cotinine and nicotine serum concentrations of female and male C57BL/6J mice after a 4-week exposure to electronic (e)-cigarette vapors using ultra-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS/MS).Methods: This experimental study was carried out at an animal facility and laboratories, College of Pharmacy, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, between January and August 2020. A 4-week exposure to e-cigarettes was carried out using male and female mice and serum samples were obtained for cotinine and nicotine quantification using UPLC-MS/MS. The chromatographic procedures involved the use of a BEH HSS T3 C18 column (100 mm x 2.1 mm, 1.7 μm) with acetonitrile as a mobile phase and 0.1% formic acid (2:98 v/v).Results: The applied methodology has highly efficient properties of detection, estimation, and extraction, where the limit of quantification (LOQ) for nicotine was 0.57 ng/mL and limit of detection (LOD) for nicotine was 0.19 ng/mL, while the LOQ for cotinine was 1.11 ng/mL and LOD for cotinine was 0.38 ng/mL. The correlation coefficient was r2>0.99 for both compounds. The average recovery rate was 101.6±1.33 for nicotine and 100.4±0.54 for cotinine, while the precision and accuracy for cotinine and nicotine were less than 6.1. The serum cotinine level was higher in males (433.7±19.55) than females (362.3±16.27).Conclusion: This study showed that the gender factor might play a crucial role in nicotine metabolism.